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Revisiting Gender Identity and Relative Income within Households: A Cautionary Tale on the Potential Pitfalls of Density Estimators

Author

Listed:
  • Kühnle, Daniel

    (University of Duisburg-Essen)

  • Oberfichtner, Michael

    (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg)

  • Ostermann, Kerstin

    (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg)

Abstract

We show that Bertrand et al.'s (QJE 2015) finding of a sharp drop in the relative income distribution within married couples at the point where wives start to earn more than their husbands is unstable across different estimation procedures and varies across contexts. We apply the estimators by McCrary (JoE, 2008, McC) and Cattaneo et al. (JASA, 2020, CJM) to administrative data from the US and Germany and compare their performance in a simulation. Large bins cause McC to substantially overreject the null hypothesis, and mass points close to the potential discontinuity affect McC more than CJM.

Suggested Citation

  • Kühnle, Daniel & Oberfichtner, Michael & Ostermann, Kerstin, 2021. "Revisiting Gender Identity and Relative Income within Households: A Cautionary Tale on the Potential Pitfalls of Density Estimators," IZA Discussion Papers 14293, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14293
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ariel J. Binder & David Lam, 2022. "Is There a Male-Breadwinner Norm? The Hazards of Inferring Preferences from Marriage Market Outcomes," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(6), pages 1885-1914.
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    3. Marianne Bertrand & Emir Kamenica & Jessica Pan, 2015. "Gender Identity and Relative Income within Households," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(2), pages 571-614.
    4. Maximilian Sprengholz & Anna Wieber & Elke Holst, 2019. "Gender Identity and Wives' Labor Market Outcomes in West and East Germany between 1984 and 2016," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1799, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Karin Hederos & Anders Stenberg, 2022. "Gender identity and relative income within households: evidence from Sweden," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(3), pages 744-772, July.
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    9. Anja Roth & Michaela Slotwinski, 2018. "Gender Norms and Income Misreporting within Households," CESifo Working Paper Series 7298, CESifo.
    10. Matias D. Cattaneo & Michael Jansson & Xinwei Ma, 2018. "Manipulation testing based on density discontinuity," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 18(1), pages 234-261, March.
    11. Natalia Zinovyeva & Maryna Tverdostup, 2021. "Gender Identity, Coworking Spouses, and Relative Income within Households," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 258-284, October.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    US; density estimation; relative income distribution; gender norms; Germany; replication;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
    • C18 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Methodolical Issues: General
    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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    1. Revisiting gender identity and relative income within households: A cautionary tale on the potential pitfalls of density estimators (Journal of Applied Econometrics forthcoming) in ReplicationWiki

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