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The evolution of the marriage premium in the Swedish labor market 1968-1991

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Abstract

Married, cohabiting, and divorced men in Sweden earn more than single men. The wage premium earned by married men has declined since 1968, mainly due to decreasing productivity differences between married and single men. During this period, reforms have been undertaken to induce spouses to share labor market and housework more equally. If this wage differential reflects specialization within households, we would expect it to decline. Using longitudinal data, the results indicate that the wage premiums mainly reflect gains from partnership. Selection based on unobserved productivity into partnership can only partly explain the wage differentials by marital status. However, I do not find that the marriage premium increases with time married as also implied by the specialization hypothesis.

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  • Richardson, Katarina, 2000. "The evolution of the marriage premium in the Swedish labor market 1968-1991," Working Paper Series 2000:5, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2000_005
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    Cited by:

    1. Francesca Cornaglia & Naomi E. Feldman, 2011. "Productivity, Wages and Marriage: The Case of Major League Baseball," CEP Discussion Papers dp1081, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    2. Ribar, David C., 2004. "What Do Social Scientists Know About the Benefits of Marriage? A Review of Quantitative Methodologies," IZA Discussion Papers 998, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Selén, Jan & Ståhlberg, Ann-Charlotte, 2000. "Survivor's Pension Rights and Wages," Working Paper Series 5/2000, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Marriage; Wage differentials;

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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