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Marriage Dynamics, Earnings Dynamics, and Lifetime Family Income

Author

Listed:
  • Ivan Vidangos

    (Federal Reserve Board)

  • Joseph Altonji

    (Yale University)

Abstract

We examine what determines the family income that individuals experience over their adult lives. To this end, we estimate a dynamic model of earnings, marriage, and divorce. The model also includes fertility. We explore the determinants of the earnings over a career of single and married men and women using a model of wages, employment, work hours, and earnings. We use the model to address a number of important questions in labor and family economics, including the effects of education and unobserved permanent characteristics on marital status and on spouse characteristics conditional on marriage. We also explore the dynamic response of wage rates, hours, earnings, marriage, and spouse characteristics and family income to various shocks and measure the relative contributions of the shocks to the variance of family income in a given year and over a lifetime.

Suggested Citation

  • Ivan Vidangos & Joseph Altonji, 2014. "Marriage Dynamics, Earnings Dynamics, and Lifetime Family Income," 2014 Meeting Papers 1230, Society for Economic Dynamics.
  • Handle: RePEc:red:sed014:1230
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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