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Who Marries Differently-Aged Spouses? Earnings, Ability and Appearance

Author

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  • Mansour, Hani

    (University of Colorado Denver)

  • McKinnish, Terra

    (University of Colorado, Boulder)

Abstract

In direct contrast to conventional wisdom and most economic models of gender differences in age of marriage, we present robust evidence that men and women who are married to differently-aged spouses are negatively selected. Earnings analysis of married couples in the 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000 Decennial Censuses finds that male earnings decrease with within-couple age difference, regardless of whether the man is older or younger than his wife. In contrast, female earnings increase with within-couple age difference, but this is due to the fact that women with differently-aged spouses work more hours not because they command higher wages. We test for negative selection into differently-aged couples using three measures: average earnings per hour in occupation using Census data, cognitive skills assessments from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort (NLSY79), and measures of physical appearance from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The point estimates indicate negative selection on all of these characteristics, although statistical significance varies by outcome and sample.

Suggested Citation

  • Mansour, Hani & McKinnish, Terra, 2012. "Who Marries Differently-Aged Spouses? Earnings, Ability and Appearance," IZA Discussion Papers 6678, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6678
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Sonia Oreffice & Climent Quintana-Domeque, 2012. "A Matter of Weight? The Role of Spouses. Physical Attractiveness on Hours of Work," CHILD Working Papers Series 7, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    2. Chiappori, Pierre-André & Oreffice, Sonia & Quintana-Domeque, Climent, 2016. "Black–White Marital Matching: Race, Anthropometrics, And Socioeconomics," Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(4), pages 399-421, December.
    3. Sonia Oreffice & Climent Quintana-Domeque, 2012. "Fat spouses and hours of work: are body and Pareto weights correlated?," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-21, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    age difference; selection; marriage markets;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • 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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