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Induction and Evaluation of Inbreeding Crosses Using the Ant, Vollenhovia Emeryi

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Does Specialization Explain Marriage Penalties and Premiums?

Alexandra Killewald¹, Margaret Gough

¹Harvard University.

American Sociological Review

|September 17, 2013

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Marriage benefits men's wages through labor market changes, not household specialization. This study finds women's wages are unaffected, challenging the specialization hypothesis for married couples.

Keywords:

earnings family marriage parenthood

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Area of Science:

Sociology
Economics
Labor Market Studies

Background:

The male marriage wage premium is often explained by within-household specialization.
This hypothesis suggests men earn more when wives handle domestic labor.
This study evaluates if this specialization negatively impacts women's wages.

Purpose of the Study:

To comprehensively evaluate the household specialization hypothesis.
To determine if married women experience wage losses due to specialization.
To assess if specialization explains parental wage penalties/premiums.

Main Methods:

Utilized fixed-effects models and data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79).
Estimated within-gender wage differences by marital status.
Examined between-gender differences in marital status and wages, testing specialization's role.

Main Results:

Results do not support the specialization hypothesis for women.
Both childless men and women receive a marriage wage premium.
Marriage augments the fatherhood premium but not the motherhood penalty; men benefit more from marriage-related changes.

Conclusions:

Marriage alters men's labor market behavior, increasing their wages.
These changes do not appear to negatively impact women's wages.
The specialization hypothesis is not supported by the observed data on married couples' wages.