Trends in Economic Homogamy: Changes in Assortative Mating or the Division of Labor in Marriage?

ABSTRACT: The growing economic resemblance of spouses has contributed to rising inequality by increasing the number of couples in which there are two high- or two low-earning partners. The dominant explanation for this trend is increased assortative mating. Previous research has primarily relied on cross-sectional data and thus has been unable to disentangle changes in assortative mating from changes in the division of spouses' paid labor-a potentially key mechanism given the dramatic rise in wives' labor supply. We use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to decompose the increase in the correlation between spouses' earnings and its contribution to inequality between 1970 and 2013 into parts due to (a) changes in assortative mating, and (b) changes in the division of paid labor. Cont

SUBMITTER: Gonalons-Pons P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6048969 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature