The evolution of the marriage premium in the Swedish labor market 1968-1991

Arbeitspapier

Married, cohabiting, and divorced men in Sweden earn more than single men. The wage premium earned by married men has declined since 1968, mainly due to decreasing productivity differences between married and single men. During this period, reforms have been undertaken to induce spouses to share labor market and housework more equally. If this wage differential reflects specialization within households, we would expect it to decline. Using longitudinal data, the results indicate that the wage premiums mainly reflect gains from partnership. Selection based on unobserved productivity into partnership can only partly explain the wage differentials by marital status. However, I do not find that the marriage premium increases with time married as also implied by the specialization hypothesis.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Working Paper ; No. 2000:5

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
• Subject: Marriage ; Wage differentials

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Richardson, Katarina
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation (IFAU)
• (where): Uppsala
• (when): 2000

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/82156
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET