Is There a Male-Breadwinner Norm? The Hazards of Inferring Preferences from Marriage Market Outcomes

Ariel Binder and David Lam

Journal of Human Resources, 2022, vol. 57, issue 6, 1885-1914

Abstract: We find that distributions of spousal earnings gaps provide no identifying information for the male-breadwinner norm, nor such a norm’s consequences for gender inequality. First, we show that simple marital matching models— without norm-related assumptions—closely replicate U.S. distributions of wife-husband earnings gaps. Second, we show that the discontinuity in this distribution as wives start to outearn husbands reflects not breadwinner norms, but rather a point mass of equal-earning couples. We conclude by arguing that the point mass may also threaten other tests of the male breadwinner hypothesis and proposing several robustness checks that future research should utilize.

JEL-codes: D10 J12 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
Note: DOI: 10.3368/jhr.58.2.0320-10803R1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Is There a Male Breadwinner Norm? The Hazards of Inferring Preferences from Marriage Market Outcomes (2018)
Working Paper: Is There a Male Breadwinner Norm? The Hazards of Inferring Preferences from Marriage Market Outcomes (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:57:y:2022:i:6:p:1885-1914

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