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The effects of assortative mating on earnings.: Human capital spillover or specialization?
Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Economics.
2009 (English)Report (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

This paper studies how the spouse’s productivity in the labor market affects one’s individual earnings when married. Theoretically, the high productivity of a spouse in a marriage could affect the other spouse’s earnings in two ways: negatively through specialization and division of labor, or positively from human capital spillover. Using longitudinal microdata on individuals as both single and married people allows us to estimate the spouses’ productivity as a single persons and thereby avoid problems of endogeneity between the two spouses’ labor market performances. Productivity is approximated with residuals from estimates of pre-marriage earnings equations. Results indicate that there are negative effects of the spouse’s productivity on individual earnings for both males and females, and that this effect appears to be enhanced by the duration of the marriage. However, closer examination shows that only the youngest groups of males and females experience this negative effect. In addition, there is some evidence for a positive effect of the husband’s productivity on earnings in the case of older groups of females.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Umeå: Institutionen för nationalekonomi, Umeå universitet , 2009.
Series
Umeå economic studies, ISSN 0348-1018 ; 788
Keywords [en]
Marriage, Assortative mating, Earnings, Specialization
National Category
Economics
Research subject
Economics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-29877OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-29877DiVA, id: diva2:278404
Available from: 2009-11-25 Created: 2009-11-25 Last updated: 2018-03-15Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Marriage, money and migration
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Marriage, money and migration
2009 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

The thesis consists of a summary and four self-contained papers.

Paper [I] examines the effects of interregional migration on gross earnings in married and cohabiting couples. In particular, we examine the link between education level and income gains. We find that pre-migration education level is a key determinant of migration and economic outcomes and is also a determinant of the effect of migration on income distribution within the household. The positive average effect on household earnings is largely explained by income gains among highly-educated males. Females generally experience no significant income gain from migration in absolute terms.

Paper [II] analyzes the effect of the spouse’s education on individual earnings. In this study, we control for time-invariant heterogeneity that may be correlated with the spouse’s education level and use a rich data set that includes observations of individuals when they are single and when they are married. The results support the hypothesis of cross-productivity for both males and females. Furthermore, couples with education within the same field experience even larger effects.

In Paper [III] we aim to study how the spouse’s productivity in the labor market affects one’s own individual earnings when married. Using longitudinal data on individuals as both single and married allows us to estimate the spouses’ productivity as single persons and thereby avoid problems of endogeneity between the two spouses’ labor market performances. Productivity is approximated with residuals from estimates of pre-marriage earnings equations. Results indicate that there are negative effects of the spouse’s productivity on individual earnings for both males and females, and that this effect appears to be enhanced by the duration of the marriage.

Paper [IV] studies spousal matching on earnings for females in secondorder marriages. We aim to follow women who marry, divorce, and subsequently remarry compared with females who marry and stay married over the course of the study interval. Overall, we find significant positive correlations for all three of the marital partitions. The correlation tends to be smaller for the first of a sequence of marriages for women who divorce than for women who marry and stay so. For the second of the successive marriages, however, the correlation of the residuals is larger than that for women who marry but once.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Umeå: Institutionen för nationalekonomi, Umeå universitet, 2009
Series
Umeå economic studies, ISSN 0348-1018 ; 790
Keywords
Regional migration, two earner households, marriage, education, human capital spillover, specialization, assortative mating, remarriage
National Category
Economics
Research subject
Economics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-29881 (URN)978-91-7264-915-6 (ISBN)
Public defence
2009-12-18, Hörsal D, Samhällsvetarhuset, Umeå universitet, Umeå, 10:15 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2009-11-27 Created: 2009-11-25 Last updated: 2018-03-15Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

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Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
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  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
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