Marriage and Work: an analysis for French couples in the last decade

Elena Stancanelli

No 2007-10, Documents de Travail de l'OFCE from Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE)

Abstract: This paper looks at French couples’ labour market behaviour over the last thirteen years, from 1990 to 2002. We find that the proportion of dual earners couples has been steadily rising over time. Joint activity rates have gone up from 52% in 1990 to over 58% in 2002. About a fifth of women in dual earners couples in our sample earns a higher gross monthly salary than their husbands. The proportion of male breadwinners couples has diminished steadily overtime, from 30% in 1990 to 22% in 2002; while that of female breadwinners has increased from 5% to 7%. We provide some descriptive and exploratory analysis of the determinants of the labour market states of spouses, accounting for class endogamy as well as for changing macroeconomic conditions. W e find that class endogamy is an important determinant of the labour market states occupied by spouses. Wives that earn more than their husbands are either low-educated women with a low-educated husband or high-educated women. Classification-JEL : D1, J12, J21 Keywords : Marriage, work behaviour, household economics.

Date: 2007
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fce:doctra:0710

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