Gender identity and relative income within households

Gender identity and relative income within households

Marianne Bertrand, Emir Kamenica, and Jessica Pan

May 2013

Abstract

We examine causes and consequences of relative income within households. We establish

that gender identity { in particular, an aversion to the wife earning more than the husband -

impacts marriage formation, the wife's labor force participation, the wife's income conditional

on working, marriage satisfaction, likelihood of divorce, and the division of home production.

The distribution of the share of household income earned by the wife exhibits a sharp cli at 0.5,

which suggests that a couple is less willing to match if her income exceeds his. Within marriage

markets, when a randomly chosen woman becomes more likely to earn more than a randomly

chosen man, marriage rates decline. Within couples, if the wife's potential income (based on her

demographics) is likely to exceed the husband's, the wife is less likely to be in the labor force

and earns less than her potential if she does work. Couples where the wife earns more than the

husband are less satised with their marriage and are more likely to divorce. Finally, based on

time use surveys, the gender gap in non-market work is larger if the wife earns more than the

husband.

Keywords: gender roles; gender gap; marriage market

JEL: D10; J12; J16



...