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Trends in Earnings Inequality and Earnings Instability among U.S. Couples: How Important is Assortative Matching?

Dmytro Hryshko (), Chinhui Juhn () and Kristin McCue

No 2015-1, Working Papers from University of Alberta, Department of Economics

Abstract: We examine changes in inequality and instability of the combined earnings of married couples over the 1980-2009 period using two U.S. panel data sets: Social Security earnings data matched to Survey of Income and Program Participation panels (SIPP-SSA)and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Relative to male earnings inequality, the inequality of couples' earnings is both lower in levels and rises by a smaller amount. We also find that couples' earnings instability is lower in levels compared to male earnings instability and actually declines in the SIPP-SSA data. While wives' earnings played an important role in dampening the rise in inequality and year-to-year variation in resources at the family level, we find that marital sorting and coordination of labor supply decisions at the family level played a minor role. Comparing actual couples to randomly paired simulated couples, we find very similar trends in earnings inequality and instability.

Keywords: inequality; instability; matching (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J01 J20 J30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2015-01-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Trends in earnings inequality and earnings instability among U.S. couples: How important is assortative matching? (2017) Downloads
Working Paper: Trends in Earnings Inequality and Earnings Instability among U.S. Couples: How Important is Assortative Matching? (2015) Downloads
Working Paper: Trends in Earnings Inequality and Earnings Instability among U.S. Couples: How Important Is Assortative Matching? (2014) Downloads
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