Social Norms, Labor Market Opportunities, and the Marriage Gap for Skilled Women

Marianne Bertrand, Patricia Cortes, Claudia Olivetti and Jessica Pan

No 11382, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: In most of the developed world, skilled women marry at a lower rate than unskilled women. We document heterogeneity across countries in how the marriage gap for skilled women has evolved over time. As labor market opportunities for women have improved, the marriage gap has been growing in some countries but shrinking in others. We discuss the comparative statics of a theoretical model in which the (negative) social attitudes toward working women might contribute to the lower marriage rate of skilled women, and might also induce a non-monotonic relationship between their labor market prospects and their marriage outcomes. The model delivers predictions about how the marriage gap for skilled women should react to changes in their labor market opportunities across economies with more or less conservative attitudes toward working women. We verify the key predictions of this model in a panel of 26 developed countries, as well as in a panel of US states.

Keywords: labor market opportunities; marriage gap; social norms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 88 pages
Date: 2018-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-gen, nep-lab, nep-ltv, nep-sea and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published - published in: Review of Economic Studies, 2021, 88 (4), 1936 - 1978

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Related works:
Working Paper: Social Norms, Labor Market Opportunities, and the Marriage Gap for Skilled Women (2016)
Working Paper: Social Norms, Labor Market Opportunities, and the Marriage Gap for Skilled Women (2016)
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