Investment in Schooling and the Marriage Market

We present a model in which investment in schooling generates two kinds of returns: the labor-market return, resulting from higher wages, and a marriage-market return, defined as the impact of schooling on the marital surplus share one can extract. Men and women may have different incentives to invest in schooling because of different market wages or household roles. This asymmetry can yield a mixed equilibrium with some educated individuals marrying uneducated spouses. When the labor-market return to schooling rises, home production demands less time, and the traditional spousal labor division norms weaken, more women may invest in schooling than men. (JEL I21, J12, J24, J31)

[1]  P. Chiappori,et al.  An Assignment Model with Divorce and Remarriage , 2008, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[2]  A. Siow,et al.  The Collective Marriage Matching Model: Identification, Estimation, and Testing , 2008 .

[3]  Hans G. Bloemen,et al.  Modelling the Employment and Wage Outcomes of Spouses: Is She Outearning Him? , 2008 .

[4]  R. Mare.  EDUCATIONAL ASSORTATIVE MATING IN TWO GENERATIONS , 2008 .

[5]  A. Siow,et al.  An Empirical Model of Intra-household Allocations and the Marriage Market , 2008 .

[6]  Michael Peters,et al.  The pre-marital investment game , 2007, J. Econ. Theory.

[7]  Joyce P. Jacobsen,et al.  Marriage, Specialization, and the Gender Division of Labor , 2007, Journal of Labor Economics.

[8]  Claudia Olivetti,et al.  Gender Roles and Technological Progress , 2007 .

[9]  P. Chiappori,et al.  Divorce, Remarriage, and Child Support , 2007, Journal of Labor Economics.

[10]  A. Siow,et al.  Lifecycle marriage matching: Theory and Evidence , 2007 .

[11]  B. Moyes.  The new economics. , 2006, The Health service journal.

[12]  D. Hamermesh,et al.  The Distribution of Total Work in the EU and Us , 2006 .

[13]  Lawrence F. Katz,et al.  The Homecoming of American College Women: The Reversal of the College Gender Gap , 2006 .

[14]  Dan Ariely,et al.  What Makes You Click? Mate Preferences and Matching Outcomes in Online Dating , 2006 .

[15]  Mark Aguiar,et al.  Measuring Trends in Leisure: The Allocation of Time Over Five Decades , 2006 .

[16]  C. Dougherty.  Why Are the Returns to Schooling Higher for Women than for Men? , 2005, The Journal of Human Resources.

[17]  Daniela Del Boca,et al.  Household Time Allocation and Modes of Behavior: A Theory of Sorts , 2005, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[18]  Murat F. Iyigun,et al.  Building the Family Nest: Pre-Marital Investments, Marriage Markets and Spousal Allocations , 2005, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[19]  Murat F. Iyigun.  Bargaining and Specialization in Marriage , 2005, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[20]  Claudia Olivetti,et al.  Home Production, Market Production and the Gender Wage Gap: Incentives and Expectations , 2005 .

[21]  C. Mulligan,et al.  Selection, Investment, and Women&Apos;S Relative Wages Since 1975 , 2005 .

[22]  Clayton Goodwin,et al.  The gender gap , 2004, The Lancet.

[23]  A. Gosling.  The Changing Distribution of Male and Female Wages, 1978-2000: Can the Simple Skills Story Be Rejected? , 2003 .

[24]  K. Charles,et al.  Gender Differences in Completed Schooling , 2002, Review of Economics and Statistics.

[25]  M. Yorukoglu,et al.  Engines of Liberation , 2003 .

[26]  Michael Peters,et al.  Competing Premarital Investments , 2002, Journal of Political Economy.

[27]  Bernard Fortin,et al.  Marriage Market, Divorce Legislation, and Household Labor Supply , 2002, Journal of Political Economy.

[28]  J. Behrman.  Mother ’ s Schooling and Child Education : A Survey ” PIER Working Paper 97-025 , 2002 .

[29]  Harold L. Cole,et al.  Efficient Non-Contractible Investments in Large Economies , 2001, J. Econ. Theory.

[30]  J. Angrist.  How Do Sex Ratios Affect Marriage and Labor Markets? Evidence from America's Second Generation , 2001, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[31]  S. Hoffman.  A Treatise on the Family , 2000 .

[32]  Leonardo Felli,et al.  Does Competition Solve the Hold‐Up Problem? , 2000, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[33]  Kjell Erik Lommerud,et al.  Mommy tracks and public policy: on self-fulfilling prophecies and gender gaps in promotion , 2000 .

[34]  Michael Peters,et al.  Competing Pre-marital Investments , 2000 .

[35]  Gillian K. Hadfield.  A coordination model of the sexual division of labor , 1999 .

[36]  Paul Glewwe.  Why Does Mother's Schooling Raise Child Health in Developing , 1999 .

[37]  David H. Autor,et al.  Changes in the Wage Structure and Earnings Inequality , 1999 .

[38]  S. Seitz.  Labor Supply, Divorce and Remarriage , 1999 .

[39]  Ronald G. Ehrenberg,et al.  Gender and Family Issues in the Workplace , 1998 .

[40]  Harold L. Cole,et al.  Efficient non-contractible investments , 1998 .

[41]  S. Grossbard-Shechtman.  The new economics of human behavior: Marriage market models , 1995 .

[42]  C. Goldin.  Career and Family: College Women Look to the Past , 1995 .

[43]  Mariano Tommasi,et al.  The new economics of human behavior: HEALTH, RELIGION, AND MASS BEHAVIOR , 1995 .

[44]  T. Barmby.  Household labor supply , 1994 .

[45]  R. Pollak,et al.  Separate Spheres Bargaining and the Marriage Market , 1993, Journal of Political Economy.

[46]  R. Gronau.  Sex-Related Wage Differentials and Women's Interrupted Labor Careers-the Chicken or the Egg , 1982, Journal of Labor Economics.

[47]  G. Becker,et al.  A Treatise on the Family , 1982 .

[48]  R. Gronau,et al.  Expected Interruptions in Labor Force Participation and Sex Related Differences in Earnings Growth , 1981 .

[49]  Solomon W. Polachek,et al.  Family Investments in Human Capital: Earnings of Women , 1974, Journal of Political Economy.

[50]  L. Shapley,et al.  The assignment game I: The core , 1971 .