Marriage and misallocation: evidence from 70 years of US history

Jay Euijung Lee

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: The traditional expectation that married women should be homemakers restricts them from pursuing their comparative advantage in the labor market. I quantify the aggregate economic consequences of these marriage-specific gender norms, accounting for selection into marriage and labor force participation. In 1940, married women faced a "norms wedge" equivalent to a 44% tax on market wages compared to similar single women, which fell to 14% by 2010. Had these norms persisted at 1940 levels, market output today would be 8.7% lower and combined market and home output 5.3% lower. Amplification effects through endogenous human capital investment and marriage decisions, which reshape the productivity distribution of both women and men, are critical to generating these large results.

Keywords: marriage; gender norms; misallocation; female labor force participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-08-20
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