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Gender Identity and Relative Income within Households: Evidence from Sweden

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  • Hederos Eriksson, Karin

    (SOFI, Stockholm University)

  • Stenberg, Anders

    (SOFI, Stockholm University)

Abstract

Bertrand et al. (2015) show that among married couples in the US, the distribution of the share of the household income earned by the wife exhibits a sharp drop just to the right of .50. They argue that this drop is consistent with a social norm prescribing that a man should earn more than his wife. We repeat this analysis for Sweden, ranked as one of the world's most gender equal countries. Analyzing Swedish population register data, we do not find support for the norm that a man should earn more than his wife.

Suggested Citation

  • Hederos Eriksson, Karin & Stenberg, Anders, 2015. "Gender Identity and Relative Income within Households: Evidence from Sweden," IZA Discussion Papers 9533, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9533
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    Cited by:

    1. Maéva Doumbia & Marion Goussé, 2021. "Gender identity and relative income within households: Evidence from Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(4), pages 1667-1683, November.
    2. Estefanía Galván, 2022. "Gender Identity and Quality of Employment," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(354), pages 409-436, April.
    3. Andrzej Cwynar & Wiktor Cwynar & Monika Baryła-Matejczuk & Moises Betancort, 2019. "Sustainable Debt Behaviour and Well-Being of Young Adults: The Role of Parental Financial Socialisation Process," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-26, December.
    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. André Grow & Jan Van Bavel, 2020. "The Gender Cliff in the Relative Contribution to the Household Income: Insights from Modelling Marriage Markets in 27 European Countries," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 36(4), pages 711-733, September.
    6. Gigi Foster & Leslie S. Stratton, 2021. "Does female breadwinning make partnerships less healthy or less stable?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(1), pages 63-96, January.
    7. Hermle, Johannes & Herold, Elena & Hildebrand, Nikolaus, 2024. "Preferences over Relative Income within the Household," IZA Discussion Papers 16803, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Estefanía Galván & Cecilia García-Peñalosa, 2021. "Interactions amongst gender norms: Evidence from US couples," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 21-15, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    9. Karen Codazzi & Valéria Pero & André Sant'Anna, 2017. "Gender identity and female labour supply in Brazil," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-105, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. 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.
    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.
    12. Chiappori, Pierre-Andre & Fioro, Carlo & Galichon, Alfred & Verzillo, Stefano, 2022. "Assortative Matching on Income," Working Papers 2022-07, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.
    13. Daniel Kuehnle & Michael Oberfichtner & Kerstin Ostermann, 2021. "Revisiting gender identity and relative income within households: A cautionary tale on the potential pitfalls of density estimators," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(7), pages 1065-1073, November.
    14. Anja Roth & Michaela Slotwinski, 2018. "Gender Norms and Income Misreporting within Households," CESifo Working Paper Series 7298, CESifo.
    15. Getik, Demid, 2022. "Relative Income, the Breadwinner Norm, and Mental Health in Couples," Working Papers 2022:10, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    16. Zhao, Yucong & Ye, Bing & Shi, Jinchuan, 2022. "Gender identity, preference, and relative income within households," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    17. Han Dongcheng & Kong Fanbo & Wang Zixun, 2021. "Gender identity and relative income within household: Evidence from China," Papers 2110.08723, arXiv.org.
    18. Karen Codazzi & Valéria Pero & André Sant’Anna, 2017. "Gender identity and female labour supply in Brazil," WIDER Working Paper Series 105, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Andrea Salazar-Díaz, 2022. "Ingreso relativo, identidad de género y brecha en el trabajo doméstico no remunerado: Evidencia para Colombia," Borradores de Economia 1191, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    20. Kazuyasu Sakamoto & Yoko Morita, 2024. "Gender identity and market and non-market work of married women: evidence from Japan," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 511-533, June.
    21. Boschini, Anne & Gunnarsson, Kristin & Roine, Jesper, 2020. "Women in top incomes – Evidence from Sweden 1971–2017," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    marriage market; gender roles; gender identity; gender gap;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - 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

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