IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jfamec/v35y2014i2p161-177.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is Dual Income Costly for Married Couples? An Analysis of Household Expenditures

Author

Listed:
  • Seonglim Lee
  • Jinkook Lee
  • Yunhee Chang

Abstract

This study analyzed annual household outlays in the recent Consumer Expenditure Survey to obtain the cost of dual income for married couples. Of the crude differences between two- and one-earner married households in payments and expenditures, the portion reflecting structural differences in demand was obtained through decomposition as the measure of the cost of dual income. We found dual-earner couples’ work-related expenditures diminished fulltime working wives’ net contribution by 1.7 % of their average earning. Greater tax burden and Social Security payments diminished fulltime working wives’ net contribution by additional 2.0 and 3.4 % of their average earnings, respectively. Dual-earner couples contributed more to private pension plans and experienced lower levels of current-period consumption including consumption of market substitutes for housework. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Seonglim Lee & Jinkook Lee & Yunhee Chang, 2014. "Is Dual Income Costly for Married Couples? An Analysis of Household Expenditures," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 161-177, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jfamec:v:35:y:2014:i:2:p:161-177
    DOI: 10.1007/s10834-013-9364-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10834-013-9364-1
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10834-013-9364-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2007. "Changes in the Labor Supply Behavior of Married Women: 1980–2000," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(3), pages 393-438.
    2. Strober, Myra H & Weinberg, Charles B, 1977. "Working Wives and Major Family Expenditures," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 4(3), pages 141-147, December.
    3. Chinhui Juhn & Simon Potter, 2006. "Changes in Labor Force Participation in the United States," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(3), pages 27-46, Summer.
    4. Mitchell, Olivia S & Zeldes, Stephen P, 1996. "Social Security Privatization: A Structure for Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 363-367, May.
    5. Younghwan Song, 2007. "The working spouse penalty/premium and married women’s labor supply," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 279-304, September.
    6. Christopher House & John Laitner & Dmitriy Stolyarov, 2008. "Valuing Lost Home Production Of Dual Earner Couples," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 49(2), pages 701-736, May.
    7. Gronau, Reuben, 1977. "Leisure, Home Production, and Work-The Theory of the Allocation of Time Revisited," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(6), pages 1099-1123, December.
    8. Heather Boushey, 2005. "Are Women Opting Out? Debunking the Myth," CEPR Reports and Issue Briefs 2005-36, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).
    9. Claudia Goldin, 2006. "The Quiet Revolution That Transformed Women's Employment, Education, and Family," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 1-21, May.
    10. James Alm & Stacy Dickert-Conlin & Leslie A. Whittington, 1999. "Policy Watch: The Marriage Penalty," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 193-204, Summer.
    11. Bar Michael & Leukhina Oksana, 2009. "To Work or Not to Work: Did Tax Reforms Affect Labor Force Participation of Married Couples?," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-30, July.
    12. Patricia Apps & Ray Rees, 2010. "Family labor supply, taxation and saving in an imperfect capital market," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 297-323, September.
    13. Bryant, W Keith, 1988. "Durables and Wives' Employment Yet Again," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 15(1), pages 37-47, June.
    14. Chris Herbst, 2010. "The labor supply effects of child care costs and wages in the presence of subsidies and the earned income tax credit," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 199-230, June.
    15. Dickert-Conlin, Stacy & Houser, Scott, 1998. "Taxes and Transfers: A New Look at the Marriage Penalty," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 51(n. 2), pages 175-217, June.
    16. Lazear, Edward P & Michael, Robert T, 1980. "Real Income Equivalence among One-Earner and Two-Earner Families," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(2), pages 203-208, May.
    17. Carmen Diana Deere & Cheryl Doss, 2006. "The Gender Asset Gap: What Do We Know And Why Does It Matter?," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1-2), pages 1-50.
    18. Silvia Pasqua, 2008. "Wives' work and income distribution in European countries," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 5(2), pages 157-186, December.
    19. Goldin, Claudia, 2006. "The Quiet Revolution That Transformed Women’s Employment, Education, and Family," Scholarly Articles 2943933, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    20. Alan L. Gustman & Thomas L. Steinmeier & Nahid Tabatabai, 2011. "The Effects of Changes in Women's Labor Market Attachment on Redistribution Under the Social Security Benefit Formula," NBER Working Papers 17439, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Dickert-Conlin, Stacy & Houser, Scott, 1998. "Taxes and Transfers: A New Look at the Marriage Penalty," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 51(2), pages 175-217, June.
    22. Shelly Lundberg & Robert A. Pollak, 2007. "The American Family and Family Economics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 3-26, Spring.
    23. Sheldon Danziger, 1980. "Do Working Wives Increase Family Income Inequality?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 15(3), pages 444-451.
    24. Nancy Jianakoplos & Alexandra Bernasek, 2008. "Family Financial Risk Taking When the Wife Earns More," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 289-306, June.
    25. Jason Murasko, 2008. "Married Women’s Labor Supply and Spousal Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: Results from Panel Data," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 391-406, September.
    26. Steven H. Sandell & Howard M. Iams, 1997. "Reducing women's poverty by shifting social security benefits from retired couples to widows," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(2), pages 279-297.
    27. Marianne A. Ferber & Bonnie G. Birnbaum, 1980. "Housework: Priceless Or Valueless?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 26(4), pages 387-400, December.
    28. Eissa, Nada & Hoynes, Hilary Williamson, 2004. "Taxes and the labor market participation of married couples: the earned income tax credit," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 1931-1958, August.
    29. Lehrer, Evelyn L., 2000. "The impact of women's employment on the distribution of earnings among married-couple households: a comparison between 1973 and 1992-1994," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 295-301.
    30. Maria Cancian & Deborah Reed, 1998. "Assessing The Effects Of Wives' Earnings On Family Income Inequality," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(1), pages 73-79, February.
    31. Leuthold, Jane H, 1981. "Taxation and the Consumption of Household Time," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 7(4), pages 388-394, March.
    32. Nickols, Sharon Y & Fox, Karen D, 1983. "Buying Time and Saving Time: Strategies for Managing Household Production," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 10(2), pages 197-208, September.
    33. Rubin, Rose M & Riney, Bobye J & Molina, David J, 1990. "Expenditure Pattern Differentials between One-Earner and Dual-Earner Households: 1972-1973 and 1984," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 17(1), pages 43-52, June.
    34. Lerman, Robert I & Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 1985. "Income Inequality Effects by Income," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(1), pages 151-156, February.
    35. Heather Boushey, 2008. "“Opting out?” The effect of children on women's employment in the United States," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 1-36.
    36. Bellante, Don & Foster, Ann C, 1984. "Working Wives and Expenditure on Services," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 11(2), pages 700-707, September.
    37. Bivens, Gordon E & Volker, Carol B, 1986. "A Value-Added Approach to Household Production: The Special Case of Meal Preparation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 13(2), pages 272-279, September.
    38. Strober, Myra H, 1977. "Wives' Labor Force Behavior and Family Consumption Patterns," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(1), pages 410-417, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kyoung Tae Kim & Jae Min Lee, 2021. "A Review of a Decade of Financial Behavior Research in the Journal of Family and Economic Issues," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 131-141, July.
    2. Wen Jun & Junaid Waheed & Hadi Hussain & Ihsan Jamil & Denisa Borbášová & Muhammad Khalid Anser, 2020. "Working women and per capita household consumption expenditures; an untouched reality," Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci/Proceedings of Rijeka Faculty of Economics, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business, vol. 38(1), pages 35-69.
    3. Nancy Folbre & Marta Murray-Close & Jooyeoun Suh, 2018. "Equivalence scales for extended income in the U.S," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 189-227, June.
    4. Vanja Lazarevic & Elizabeth G. Holman & Ramona Faith Oswald & Karen Z. Kramer, 2016. "Relations Between Economic Well-Being, Family Support, Community Attachment, and Life Satisfaction Among LGBQ Adults," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 37(4), pages 594-606, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Seonglim Lee & Jinkook Lee & Yunhee Chang, 2011. "What is the Cost of Married Women's Paid Work?," Working Papers WR-830, RAND Corporation.
    2. Joni Hersch, 2013. "Opting out among women with elite education," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 469-506, December.
    3. Herwig Immervoll & Henrik Jacobsen Kleven & Claus Thustrup Kreiner & Nicolaj Verdelin, 2008. "An Evaluation of the Tax-Transfer Treatment of Married Couples in European Countries," EPRU Working Paper Series 08-03, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    4. Nolan, Brian & Azzollini, Leo & Breen, Richard, 2022. "From Gender Equality to Household Earnings Equality: the role of Women's Labour Market Outcomes across OECD Countries," INET Oxford Working Papers 2022-13, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    5. Giovanni Razzu & Carl Singleton & Mark Mitchell, 2020. "On why the gender employment gap in Britain has stalled since the early 1990s," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(6), pages 476-501, November.
    6. Jane Leber Herr & Catherine D. Wolfram, 2012. "Work Environment and OPT-out Rates at Motherhood across High-Education Career Paths," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 65(4), pages 928-950, October.
    7. Heather Antecol, 2015. "Career and Family Choices Among Elite Liberal Arts Graduates," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(4), pages 1089-1120, August.
    8. Jin Young Lee, 2014. "The Plateau in U.S. Women's Labor Force Participation: A Cohort Analysis," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 46-71, January.
    9. Jane Leber Herr & Catherine Wolfram, 2009. "Work Environment and "Opt-Out" Rates at Motherhood Across High-Education Career Paths," NBER Working Papers 14717, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Razzu, Giovanni & Singleton, Carl & Mitchell, Mark, 2018. "On why gender employment equality in Britain has stalled since the early 1990s," MPRA Paper 87190, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Melanie Guldi & Lucie Schmidt, 2017. "Taxes, Transfers, and Women’s Labor Supply in the United States," Working Papers 2017-01, University of Central Florida, Department of Economics.
    12. Kasey Buckles & Melanie Guldi & Joseph Price, 2011. "Changing the Price of Marriage: Evidence from Blood Test Requirements," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 46(3), pages 539-567.
    13. Rita K. Almeida & Mariana Viollaz, 2023. "Women in paid employment: a role for public policies and social norms in Guatemala," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(3), pages 252-279, July.
    14. Liying Luo & James Hodges, 2019. "The Age-Period-Cohort-Interaction Model for Describing and Investigating Inter-Cohort Deviations and Intra-Cohort Life-Course Dynamics," Papers 1906.08357, arXiv.org.
    15. Sudipto Banerjee & David Blau, 2016. "Employment Trends by Age in the United States: Why Are Older Workers Different?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 51(1), pages 163-199.
    16. Macunovich, Diane J., 2009. "Reversals in the Patterns of Women's Labor Supply in the U.S., 1976-2009," IZA Discussion Papers 4512, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Ina GANGULI & Ricardo HAUSMANN & Martina VIARENGO, 2014. "Closing the gender gap in education: What is the state of gaps in labour force participation for women, wives and mothers?," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 153(2), pages 173-207, June.
    18. Alberto Alesina & Andrea Ichino & Loukas Karabarbounis, 2011. "Gender-Based Taxation and the Division of Family Chores," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 1-40, May.
    19. Katie R. Genadek & Sarah M. Flood & Joan Garcia Roman, 2016. "Trends in Spouses’ Shared Time in the United States, 1965–2012," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(6), pages 1801-1820, December.
    20. Tomáš Sobotka, 2008. "Overview Chapter 6: The diverse faces of the Second Demographic Transition in Europe," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 19(8), pages 171-224.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jfamec:v:35:y:2014:i:2:p:161-177. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.