Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/185217 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 11757
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Bertrand, Kamenica and Pan (2015) document that in the U.S. there is a sharp discontinuity to the right of 1/2 in the distribution of households according to the share of income earned by the wife, which they attribute to the existence of a gender identity norm postulating that a wife should earn less than her husband. We propose an alternative explanation for the existence of this discontinuity. We argue that any force that pushes some spouses towards equalizing their earnings, such as family businesses and co-working of spouses, creates a similar discontinuity. Using linked employer-employee data from Finland, we document the existence of a discontinuity of the same magnitude as in the U.S. and show that it can be fully explained by the earnings convergence of spouses who start working together. We also provide evidence suggesting that co-working spouses play an important role in explaining the discontinuity observed in the U.S.
Subjects: 
co-working spouses
gender identity norms
spouses' relative earnings
JEL: 
D10
J16
J21
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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