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Marriage and wages

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  • P. Taylor, Mark
  • Bardasi, Elena

Abstract

This work investigates the commonly observed relationship between marriage and wages among men in Britain using panel data covering the 1990s. We explicitly test several hypotheses developed in the literature to explain this relationship, including the household division of labour and specialisation, differential rates of human capital formation, employer favouritism, and self-selection. After accounting for individual-specific time-invariant effects, and a wide range of individual, household, job and employer related characteristics, we find a small but statistically significant premium remains that can be attributed to productivity differences. Our estimates provide evidence for the existence of a large selection effect into marriage based on both observable and unobservable characteristics that are positively correlated with wages (consistent with employers using marriage as a positive signal), and also evidence in support of the specialisation hypothesis.

Suggested Citation

  • P. Taylor, Mark & Bardasi, Elena, 2005. "Marriage and wages," ISER Working Paper Series 2005-01, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:ese:iserwp:2005-01
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    1. Marriage, wages & exploitation
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2011-05-13 18:10:36

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    Cited by:

    1. Petersen, Trond & Penner, Andrew & Hogsnes, Geir, 2006. "The Male Marital Wage Premium: Sorting Versus Differential Pay," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt2053f73v, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    2. Waka Cheung & Yew-Kwang Ng, 2011. "Gender Division of Labor and Alimony," Monash Economics Working Papers 17-11, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    3. Almudena Sevilla-Sanz & Mark L. Bryan, 2007. "Does Housework Lower Wages and Why? Evidence for Britain," Economics Series Working Papers 331, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    4. Xavier Ramos, 2008. "Using Efficiency Analysis to Measure Individual Well-being with an Illustration for Catalonia," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Nanak Kakwani & Jacques Silber (ed.), Quantitative Approaches to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement, chapter 9, pages 155-175, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Cornaglia, Francesca & Feldman, Naomi E., 2011. "Productivity, Wages, and Marriage: The Case of Major League Baseball," IZA Discussion Papers 5695, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Alison Booth & Jeff Frank, 2008. "Marriage, partnership and sexual orientation: a study of British university academics and administrators," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 409-422, December.

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