Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/185216 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 11756
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper explores the effects of a spouse's personality on earnings. We build on the growing literature spanning economics and psychology that investigates how personality traits affect one's own individual earnings. In particular, several of the big five personality characteristics (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness) have been shown to be predictors of own earnings. To our knowledge only one paper studies the relationship between spousal personality and labor market outcomes finding a strong correlation between the two. We extend this work to assess the linkage between spousal personality and earnings while accounting for the potential endogeneity of the selection into marriage. Using the Household, Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia Survey from 2001†2013, we test which spousal personality characteristics affect earnings. Our results indicate that for men, having a conscientious wife raises his earnings while there is little consistent effect of husband's personality on his wife's earnings.
Subjects: 
conscientiousness
Five Factor Model
HILDA
earnings
personality
marriage
assortative mating
JEL: 
J12
J24
J31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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