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Title: Who Marries Differently-Aged Spouses? Earnings, Ability and Appearance
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Mansour, Hani McKinnish, Terra |
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Who Marries Differently-Aged Spouses? Earnings, Ability and Appearance Working Paper Series, SSRN - Social Science Research Network, April 26, 2011. Also: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1823746 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. Keyword(s): Age and Ageing; Census of Population; Cognitive Development; Earnings, Husbands; Earnings, Wives; Gender Differences; Marriage; National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth) Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. In direct contrast to conventional wisdom and most economic models of gender differences in age of marriage, we present robust evidence that men and women who are married to differently-aged spouses are negatively selected. Earnings analysis of married couples in the 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000 Decennial Censuses finds that male earnings decrease with within-couple age difference, regardless of whether the man is older or younger than his wife. In contrast, female earnings increase with within-couple age difference. We argue and present evidence that women in differently-aged couples have higher earnings not because of positive selection, but because their hours of work increase in response to partnering with a lower earning man. We test for negative selection into differently-aged couples using three measures: average earnings per hour in occupation using Census data, cognitive skills assessments from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort (NLSY79), and measures of physical appearance from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The point estimates indicate negative selection on all of these characteristics, although statistical significance varies by outcome and sample. |
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Bibliography Citation
Mansour, Hani and Terra McKinnish. "Who Marries Differently-Aged Spouses? Earnings, Ability and Appearance." Working Paper Series, SSRN - Social Science Research Network, April 26, 2011. |