What if women earned more than their spouse? An experimental investigation of work division in couples

François Cochard, Hélène Couprie () and Astrid Hopfensitz

No 2015-18, THEMA Working Papers from THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise

Abstract: Female specialization on household work and male specialization on labor-market work is a widely observed phenomenon across time and countries. Gender differences regarding characteristics (preferences, productivity) and context (wage rates, social norms) are generally recognized to explain this fact. We experimentally investigate work division by true co-habiting couples participating in a newly developed specialization task. Efficiency in this task comes at the cost of inequality, giving higher earnings to the “advantaged” player. We compare behavior when men (or women) are in the advantaged position, which correspond to the traditional (or power) couple case where he (or she) earns more. We show that women do not contribute more than men to the household public good whatever the situation. This result allows us to rule-out some of the standard explanations of the work division puzzle.

Keywords: Experiment on couples; Time allocation; Work division (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C99 D13 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: What if women earned more than their spouses? An experimental investigation of work-division in couples (2018)
Working Paper: What if women earned more than their spouse? An experimental investigation of work-division in couples (2018)
Working Paper: What if women earned more than their spouses? An experimental investigation of work-division in couples (2017)
Working Paper: What if women earned more than their spouses? An experimental investigation of work-division in couples (2017)
Working Paper: What if women earned more than their spouse? An experimental investigation of work division in couples (2015)
Working Paper: What if women earned more than their spouse? An experimental investigation of work division in couples (2015)
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