Gender Identity, Coworking Spouses, and Relative Income within Households

Bertrand, Kamenica, and Pan (2015) document that in the United States there is a discontinuity to the right of 0.5 in the distribution of households according to the female share of total earnings, which they attribute to the existence of a gender identity norm. We provide an alternative explanation for this discontinuity. Using linked employer-employee data from Finland, we show that the discontinuity emerges as a result of equalization and convergence of earnings in coworking couples, and it is associated with an increase in the relative earnings of women, rather than a decrease as predicted by the norm. (JEL D12, J12, J16, J22, J31, Z13)

Recent Investments in Human Capital and its Effect on the Chances of Escaping from Low-paid Jobs: The Spanish Case

General education and training are major forces determining earnings. According to the human capital model, wage differentials among individuals over the life-cycle are largely the result of different patterns of investment in human capital. This paper is intended to analyze the effects of recent investments in human capital — general education, vocational/training or language courses on workers’ relative earnings and on the probability of making an upwards transition in the earnings distribution. The analysis is done for Spain, using the European Community Household Panel (1995-2001). Our results reveal that having been recently in education or training (mainly vocational/training courses) significantly increases the probability of escaping from low pay to better paid jobs, while decreases the risk of falling into low-wage employment. Furthermore, this positive effect is significantly higher among those workers with a third level of general education completed. A separate analysis for females also reveals these positive returns of recent investments in human capital relative earnings, although in this case they appear to be none statistically significant.

The Partner Pay Gap: Associations between Spouses’ Relative Earnings and Life Satisfaction among Couples in the UK

Despite women’s recent gains in education and employment, husbands still tend to out-earn their wives. This article examines the relationship between the partner pay gap (i.e. the difference in earned income between married, co-resident partners) and life satisfaction. Contrary to previous studies, we investigate the effects of recent changes in relative earnings within couples as well as labour market transitions. Using several waves of the UK Household Longitudinal Study, we reveal that men exhibit an increase in life satisfaction in response to a recent increase in their proportional earnings relative to their wives’ earnings. For women, changes in proportional earnings had no effect on life satisfaction. We also find secondary-earning husbands report lower average life satisfaction than majority-earning and equal-earning men, while such differences were not found for women. The analysis offers compelling evidence of the ongoing role of gendered norms in the sustenance of the partner pay gap.