Work

Earnings Inequality and the Changing Association between Spouses’ Earnings

Year: 2010

Type: article

Abstract: Increases in the association between spouses' earnings have the potential to increase inequality as marriages increasingly consist of two high-earning or two low-earning partners. This article uses log-linear models and data from the March Current Population Survey to describe trends in the association between spouses' earnings and estimate their contribution to growing earnings inequality among married couples from 1967 to 2005. The results indicate that increases in earnings inequality would have been about 25%-30% lower than observed in the absence of changes in the association, depending on the inequality measure used. Three components of these changes and how they vary across the earnings distribution are explored.

Source: American Journal of Sociology

DOI: 10.1086/651373

Author: Christine R. Schwartz

Institution: University of Wisconsin–Madison

Language: English

Topic: Labor market dynamics and wage inequality

Subfield: Economics and Econometrics

Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: green

Funder: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development