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Household Search and the Marital Wage Premium

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  • Laura Pilossoph
  • Shu Lin Wee

Abstract

We develop a model where selection into marriage and household search generate a marital wage premium. Beyond selection, married individuals earn higher wages for two reasons. First, income pooling within a joint household raises risk-averse individuals' reservation wages. Second, married individuals climb the job ladder faster, as they internalize that higher wages increase their partner's selectivity over offers. Specialization according to comparative advantage in search generates a premium that increases in spousal education, as in the data. Quantitatively, household search explains 10–33 percent and 20–58 percent of the premium for males and females, respectively, and accounts for its increase with spousal education.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura Pilossoph & Shu Lin Wee, 2021. "Household Search and the Marital Wage Premium," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 55-109, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejmac:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:55-109
    DOI: 10.1257/mac.20180092
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. James K. Hammitt & Jin-Tan Liu & Jin-Long Liu, 2022. "Is survival a luxury good? Income elasticity of the value per statistical life," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 65(3), pages 239-260, December.
    2. J. Ignacio García‐Pérez & Sílvio Rendon, 2020. "Family job search and wealth: The added worker effect revisited," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 11(4), pages 1431-1459, November.
    3. Guner, Nezih & Kulikova, Yuliya & Valladares-Esteban, Arnau, 2020. "Does the Added Worker Effect Matter?," IZA Discussion Papers 12923, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. McConnell, Brendon & Valladares-Esteban, Arnau, 2023. "Do Employers Positively Discriminate Married Workers?," Economics Working Paper Series 2305, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    5. Haomin Wang, 2019. "Intra-Household Risk Sharing and Job Search over the Business Cycle," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 34, pages 165-182, October.
    6. Heyman, Fredrik & Olsson, Martin, 2022. "Long-Run Effects of Technological Change: The Impact of Automation and Robots on Intergenerational Mobility," Working Paper Series 1451, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 29 Jun 2023.
    7. Fernández-Blanco, Javier, 2022. "Unemployment risks and intra-household insurance," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    8. Bloemen, Hans, 2021. "Labor Market Transitions of Members of Opposite-Sex Couples: Nonparticipation, Unemployed Search, and Employment," IZA Discussion Papers 14673, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • 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
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

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