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Gender norms and income misreporting within households

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  • Roth, Anja
  • Slotwinski, Michaela

Abstract

We show that the discontinuity in the distribution of surveyed female income shares at the margin where a woman would outearn her partner is primarily driven by norm induced misreporting in surveys. We draw on unique Swiss data combining survey and administrative information for the same individual and their partner. We demonstrate that individuals misreport incomes in surveys to comply with the male breadwinner norm. The male breadwinner norm does, however, not affect real labor market decisions around this margin. The resulting survey bias leads to a considerable overestimation of policy relevant measures like the gender wage gap.

Suggested Citation

  • Roth, Anja & Slotwinski, Michaela, 2020. "Gender norms and income misreporting within households," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-001, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:20001
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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. René Böheim & Sarah Gust, 2022. "The Austrian Pay Transparency Law and the Gender Wage Gap," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 23(02), pages 25-28, March.
    3. Amanda Goodall & Margit Osterloh & Mandy Fong, 2020. "Women Shy Away From Competition – How To Overcome It," CREMA Working Paper Series 2020-21, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    4. M. M. Naeser Seldal & Ellen K. Nyhus, 2022. "Financial Vulnerability, Financial Literacy, and the Use of Digital Payment Technologies," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 281-306, June.
    5. Maximilian Sprengholz & Anna Wieber & Elke Holst, 2019. "Gender Identity and Wives' Labor Market Outcomes in West and East Germany between 1984 and 2016," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1799, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    6. 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.
    7. Misty Heggeness & Marta Murray-Close, 2019. "Manning Up and Womaning Down: How Husbands and Wives Report Earnings When She Earns More," Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute Working Papers 28, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    8. Dervisevic, Ervin & Goldstein, Markus, 2023. "He said, she said: The impact of gender and marriage perceptions on self and proxy reporting of labor," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    9. Strittmatter, Anthony & Wunsch, Conny, 2021. "The Gender Pay Gap Revisited with Big Data: Do Methodological Choices Matter?," Working papers 2021/05, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    10. 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.
    11. Anne-Cathérine Guio & Karel Van den Bosch, 2020. "Deprivation of Women and Men Living in a Couple: Sharing or Unequal Division?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 66(4), pages 958-984, December.
    12. Mwale, Martin Limbikani & Chirwa, Gowokani Chijere & Mchenga, Martina & Zabula, Tayamika Kamwanja, 2021. "Micro-finance and women’s perception of domestic violence in a fragile state," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    13. Chiappori, Pierre-Andre & Fioro, Carlo & Galichon, Alfred & Verzillo, Stefano, 2022. "Assortative Matching on Income," Working Papers 2022-07, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.
    14. 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.
    15. Johannes Koeckeis, 2022. "Intra-household inequality and tax planning of same-sex couples," GRAPE Working Papers 73, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    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.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    gender norms; female income shares; combination survey and administrative data; income misreporting; gender earnings gap;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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