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  5. Specialization Then and Now: Marriage, Children, and the Gender Earnings Gap across Cohorts

Journal of Economic Perspectives

ISSN 0895-3309 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7965 (Online)

Specialization Then and Now: Marriage, Children, and the Gender Earnings Gap across Cohorts

  • Chinhui Juhn
  • Kristin McCue
Journal of Economic Perspectives
vol. 31, no. 1, Winter 2017
(pp. 183–204)
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Abstract

In this paper, we examine the evolution of the gender gap associated with marriage and parental status, comparing cohorts born between 1936 and 1985. The model of household specialization and division of labor introduced by Becker posits that when forming households, couples will exploit the gains from trade by having one spouse specialize in market work while the other specializes in household work. Given the historical advantage of men in the labor market, the model predicts specialization by gender and therefore an earnings advantage for married men and an earnings disadvantage for married women. Is this model of specialization useful for understanding the evolution of the gender gap across generations of women? And what about children? Academic papers have shown that wages of mothers are significantly lower than those of non-mothers with similar human capital characteristics. We do not attempt to build a structural model here, but rather document how changing associations between marriage and earnings, and between children and earnings, have contributed to the gender gap in an "accounting" sense.

Citation

Juhn, Chinhui, and Kristin McCue. 2017. "Specialization Then and Now: Marriage, Children, and the Gender Earnings Gap across Cohorts." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 31 (1): 183–204. DOI: 10.1257/jep.31.1.183

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • J12 Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse
  • J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
  • J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
  • J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
  • J31 Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
  • J71 Labor Discrimination
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