IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp16513.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Marital Sorting, Household Inequality and Selection

Author

Listed:
  • Fernández-Val, Iván

    (Boston University)

  • van Vuuren, Aico

    (University of Groningen)

  • Vella, Francis

    (Georgetown University)

Abstract

Using CPS data for 1976 to 2022 we explore how wage inequality has evolved for married couples with both spouses working full time full year, and its impact on household income inequality. We also investigate how marriage sorting patterns have changed over this period. To determine the factors driving income inequality we estimate a model explaining the joint distribution of wages which accounts for the spouses' employment decisions. We find that income inequality has increased for these households and increased assortative matching of wages has exacerbated the inequality resulting from individual wage growth. We find that positive sorting partially reflects the correlation across unobservables influencing both members' of the marriage wages. We decompose the changes in sorting patterns over the 47 years comprising our sample into structural, composition and selection effects and find that the increase in positive sorting primarily reflects the increased skill premia for both observed and unobserved characteristics.

Suggested Citation

  • Fernández-Val, Iván & van Vuuren, Aico & Vella, Francis, 2023. "Marital Sorting, Household Inequality and Selection," IZA Discussion Papers 16513, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16513
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp16513.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn & Nikolai Boboshko & Matthew Comey, 2024. "The Impact of Selection into the Labor Force on the Gender Wage Gap," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 42(4), pages 1093-1133.
    2. Pierre-André Chiappori & Monica Costa Dias & Costas Meghir, 2020. "Changes in Assortative Matching: Theory and Evidence for the US," NBER Working Papers 26932, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Keane, Michael P, 1994. "A Computationally Practical Simulation Estimator for Panel Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(1), pages 95-116, January.
    4. Pierre-André Chiappori & Bernard Salanié & Yoram Weiss, 2017. "Partner Choice, Investment in Children, and the Marital College Premium," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(8), pages 2109-2167, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pierre‐André Chiappori & Monica Costa‐Dias & Sam Crossman & Costas Meghir, 2020. "Changes in Assortative Matching and Inequality in Income: Evidence for the UK," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(1), pages 39-63, March.
    2. Paula A. Calvo & Ilse Lindenlaub & Ana Reynoso, 2021. "Marriage Market and Labor Market Sorting," NBER Working Papers 28883, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Hoehn-Velasco, Lauren & Penglase, Jacob, 2023. "Changes in assortative matching and educational inequality: evidence from marriage and birth records in Mexico," Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 89(4), pages 587-607, December.
    4. Pierre-André Chiappori & Edoardo Ciscato & Carla Guerriero, 2021. "Analyzing Matching Patterns in Marriage:Theory and Application to Italian Data," CSEF Working Papers 613, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    5. Anderberg, Dan & Vickery, Alexander, 2021. "The role of own-group density and local social norms for ethnic marital sorting: Evidence from the UK," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    6. Pierre-Andre Chiappori & Monica Costa Dias & Costas Meghir, 2021. "The Measuring of Assortativeness in Marriage," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2316, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    7. Anton A. Cheremukhin & Paulina Restrepo-Echavarria & Antonella Tutino, 2023. "Marriage Market Sorting in the U.S," Working Papers 2023-023, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, revised 25 Sep 2024.
    8. Arnaud Dupuy & Simon Weber, 2022. "Marriage Market Counterfactuals Using Matching Models," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(353), pages 29-43, January.
    9. Pierre-André Chiappori & Edoardo Ciscato & Carla Guerriero, 2020. "Analyzing Matching Patterns in Marriage: Theory and Application to Italian Data," Working Papers 2020-080, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    10. Pierre-André Chiappori & Carlo Fiorio & Alfred Galichon & Stefano Verzillo, 2022. "Assortative Matching on Income," Working Papers 2022-006, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    11. Paleti, Rajesh, 2018. "Generalized multinomial probit Model: Accommodating constrained random parameters," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 248-262.
    12. Troske, Kenneth R. & Voicu, Alexandru, 2010. "Joint estimation of sequential labor force participation and fertility decisions using Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 150-169, January.
    13. Margaux Suteau, 2020. "Inheritance Rights and Women's Empowerment in the Labor and Marriage Markets," THEMA Working Papers 2020-17, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    14. Lorena Hakak & Paula Pereda, 2021. "Marriage in the time of the HIV/AIDS epidemic," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2021_07, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP), revised 03 Nov 2022.
    15. Jörg Breitung & Michael Lechner, 1996. "Estimation de modèles non linéaires sur données de panel par la méthode des moments généralisés," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 126(5), pages 191-203.
    16. Mutuc, Maria Erlinda M. & Rejesus, Roderick M. & Pan, Suwen & Yorobe, Jose M., Jr., 2012. "Impact Assessment of Bt Corn Adoption in the Philippines," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 44(1), pages 1-19, February.
    17. Ugo Bolletta & Luca Paolo Merlino, 2022. "Marriage Through Friends," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 1046-1066, December.
    18. Geweke, J. & Joel Horowitz & Pesaran, M.H., 2006. "Econometrics: A Bird’s Eye View," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0655, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    19. Jenkins, Amanda & Velandia, Margarita & Lambert, Dayton M. & Roberts, Roland K. & Larson, James A. & English, Burton C. & Martin, Steven W., 2011. "Factors Influencing the Selection of Precision Farming Information Sources by Cotton Producers," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(2), pages 307-320, September.
    20. Jeanne Lafortune & Corinne Low, 2023. "Collateralized Marriage," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 252-291, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    marital sorting; inequality; selection;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C30 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - General
    • 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

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16513. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.