Couples Division of Paid Work and Rising Home Income Inequality: A Cross-Country Comparison, 1994-2013

Efrat Herzberg-Druker ()

No 843, LIS Working papers from LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg

Abstract: Scholars remain divided over the association between changes in women's employment patterns and the rise in income inequality in recent decades. Some scholars found that the rise in women's employment has led to a decrease in inequality across households whereas others claimed that women's increased employment has led to increased inequality. By utilizing the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) dataset and three different counterfactual analyses within cross-country comparative framework approach I examine whether changes in couples' division of paid work (i.e., changes in both spouses' working hours) are associated with increasing income inequality. Moreover, I ask whether the selection of couples into the different types of division of paid work based on their level of education, is the mechanism underlying the growing inequality. Results suggest that the increase in the share of full-time dual-earner households has led to the rising income inequality in most countries investigated. However, although the share of highly educated couples among full-time dual-earner couples has increased, I did not find support to the proposition that selectivity of couples into the different types of division of paid work, based on education level, captures the mechanism behind the association of couples' division of paid work and rising income inequality.

Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2022-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-des
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