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Why Are Power Couples Increasingly Concentrated in Large Metropolitan Areas

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Janice Compton
Robert A. Pollak

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Abstract

Using census data, Costa and Kahn (QJE, 2000) find that power couples - couples in which both spouses have college degrees - are increasingly likely to be located in the largest metropolitan areas. One explanation for this trend is that college educated couples are more likely to face a co-location problem - the desire to satisfy the career aspirations of both spouses - and therefore are more attracted to large labor markets than are other couples. An alternative explanation is that all college educated individuals, married and unmarried, are attracted to the amenities and high returns to education found in large cities and that as a result, the formation of power couples through marriage of educated singles and additional education is more likely to occur in larger than smaller metropolitan areas. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we analyze the dynamic patterns of migration, marriage, divorce and education in relation to city size and find that power couples are not more likely to migrate to the largest cities than part-power couples or power singles. Instead, the location trends are better explained by the higher rate of power couple formation in larger metropolitan areas. Regression analysis suggests that it is only the education of the husband and not the joint education profile of the couple that affects the propensity to migrate to large metropolitan areas.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 10918.

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Date of creation: Nov 2004
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10918

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J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Guido De Blasio, 2005. "Production Or Consumption? Disentangling The Skill-Agglomeration Connection," ERSA conference papers ersa05p648, European Regional Science Association. [Downloadable!]
  2. Jordan Rappaport, 2003. "Moving to nice weather," Research Working Paper RWP 03-07, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. [Downloadable!]
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  3. Pieter A. Gautier & Michael Svarer & Coenraad N. Teulings, 2005. "Marriage and the City," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo GmbH. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Jonathan F. Pingle, 2006. "The relocation decisions of working couples," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2006-33, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  5. Isacsson, Gunnar & Regnér, Håkan, 2007. "Changes during the 1990's in the location of Swedish Power Couples: Consequences and Explanations," Working Paper Series 1/2007, Swedish Institute for Social Research. [Downloadable!]
  6. Hendrik Jürges, 2005. "Gender Ideology, Division of Housework, and the Geographic Mobility Families," MEA discussion paper series 05090, Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging, University of Mannheim. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Signe Jauhiainen, 2005. "Regional Concentration of Highly Educated Couples," ERSA conference papers ersa05p122, European Regional Science Association. [Downloadable!]
  8. Dolado, Juan José & Felgueroso, Florentino, 2008. "Occupational Mismatch and Moonlighting among Spanish Physicians: Do Couples Matter?," IZA Discussion Papers 3419, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Maristella Botticini & Aloysius Siow, 2008. "Are there Increasing Returns in Marriage Markets?," Working Papers tecipa-333, University of Toronto, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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