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Gender Discrimination and Efficiency in Marriage: the Bargaining Family under Scrutiny

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Author Info
Helmut Rainer

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Abstract

This paper criticizes the view that discrimination limits the disadvantaged sex to undertaking housework and thus ensures that gains from specialization at the household level are not wasted. Our framework gives attention to causal links between labor market discrimination and the strategic behavior of women and men within families. We consider a repeated family bargaining model that links the topics of employment and households. A key aspect of the model is that marital bargaining power is determined endogenously: the amount of money a person earns—in comparison with a partner’s income—establishes relative marital bargaining power. Gender discrimination can alter household behavior in surprising and sometimes unfortunate ways. We show that: (i) the efficiency of household decisions is sometimes inversely related to the prevailing degree of gender discrimination in labor markets; (ii) discriminated against females have difficulty enforcing cooperative household outcomes since they may be extremely limited to credibly punish opportunistic behavior by their male partners; (iii) the likelihood that sharing rules such as “equal sharing” are maintained throughout a marriage relationship is highest when men and women face equal opportunities in labor markets. A key policy implication obtained from our analysis is that efforts to promote greater gender equality in labor markets can also contribute to increasing the likelihood of fully cooperative outcomes at the household level.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Centre for Research into Industry, Enterprise, Finance and the Firm in its series CRIEFF Discussion Papers with number 0512.

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Date of creation: Sep 2005
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Handle: RePEc:san:crieff:0512

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Postal: School of Economics and Finance, University of St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9AL
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Related research
Keywords: Gender Roles Discrimination Marital Negotiations Reputation.

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
J82 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Labor Force Composition
C78 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Bargaining Theory; Matching Theory

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