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Gender identity and relative income within households: evidence from Sweden

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  • Karin Hederos
  • Anders Stenberg

Abstract

In their study of relative income within US households, Bertrand et al. (2015, Quarterly Journal of Economics 130, 571–614) show that the distribution of the wife's share of household income drops sharply where the wife starts earning more than her husband. They attribute the drop to a gender norm prescribing that a wife's income should not exceed her husband's income. We document a similar drop in Swedish data. However, we also show that there is a spike where spouses earn exactly the same. Excluding the equal‐earning spouses, the drop is small and mostly statistically insignificant. We conclude that, if anything, we find only weak evidence that Swedish couples comply with this gender norm.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:scandj:v:124:y:2022:i:3:p:744-772
    DOI: 10.1111/sjoe.12477
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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. Sprengholz, Maximilian & Wieber, Anna & Holst, Elke, 2019. "Gender Identity and Wives' Labor Market Outcomes in West and East Germany between 1984 and 2016," IZA Discussion Papers 12284, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. 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).
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. Estefanía Galván, 2022. "Gender Identity and Quality of Employment," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(354), pages 409-436, April.
    7. Zhao, Yucong & Ye, Bing & Shi, Jinchuan, 2022. "Gender identity, preference, and relative income within households," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    8. 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.
    9. Han Dongcheng & Kong Fanbo & Wang Zixun, 2021. "Gender identity and relative income within household: Evidence from China," Papers 2110.08723, arXiv.org.
    10. Chiappori, Pierre-Andre & Fioro, Carlo & Galichon, Alfred & Verzillo, Stefano, 2022. "Assortative Matching on Income," Working Papers 2022-07, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.
    11. 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.
    12. Sarah, Rosenberg, 2024. "Revisiting the Breadwinner Norm: Replicating Bertrand, Kamenica, and Pan (2015)," Working Papers 2024:10, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    13. 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.
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. 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.
    17. Anja Roth & Michaela Slotwinski, 2018. "Gender Norms and Income Misreporting within Households," CESifo Working Paper Series 7298, CESifo.
    18. Boschini, Anne & Gunnarsson, Kristin & Roine, Jesper, 2020. "Women in top incomes – Evidence from Sweden 1971–2017," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    19. Getik, Demid, 2022. "Relative Income, the Breadwinner Norm, and Mental Health in Couples," Working Papers 2022:10, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    20. Hermle, Johannes & Herold, Elena & Hildebrand, Nikolaus, 2024. "Preferences over Relative Income within the Household," IZA Discussion Papers 16803, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    21. 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.
    22. 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).

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    More about this item

    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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