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Marriage, cohabitation and women's response to changes in the male wage structure

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  • Ren頍orissette
  • Yuqian Lu
  • Feng Hou

Abstract

Using microdata and grouped data that cover the period 1996 to 2006, we assess the extent to which cohabiting women adjust their labour supply to a lesser extent, if any, than married women in response to changes in male wages. Both microdata regressions and grouping estimators unambiguously indicate that cohabiting women respond less to variation in male wages than married women. However, the magnitude of the difference is not sizeable. We also assess the magnitude of married men's and cohabiting men's own wage elasticities and find that they do not differ much. Combined with the fact that male earnings account for roughly two-thirds of family earnings, these two findings explain why the impact of changes in male wages on family earnings is very similar for married couples and cohabiting couples: in both cases, a 10% decline in male wages appears to induce roughly a 6% drop in family earnings.

Suggested Citation

  • Ren頍orissette & Yuqian Lu & Feng Hou, 2012. "Marriage, cohabitation and women's response to changes in the male wage structure," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(19), pages 2499-2516, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:44:y:2012:i:19:p:2499-2516
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2011.566180
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Doreen Triebe, 2013. "Wo(men) at Work?: The Impact of Cohabiting and Married Partners' Earning on Women's Work Hours," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 614, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    2. Doreen Triebe, 2015. "The Added Worker Effect Differentiated by Gender and Partnership Status: Evidence from Involuntary Job Loss," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 740, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).

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