Marital Sorting, Household Labor Supply, and Intergenerational Earnings Mobility across Countries

57 Pages Posted: 10 Oct 2007

See all articles by Oddbjorn Raaum

Oddbjorn Raaum

University of Oslo - Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research

Bernt Bratsberg

University of Oslo - Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research; Kansas State University - Department of Economics

Knut Roed

Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Eva Osterbacka

Åbo Akademi University

Tor Eriksson

Aarhus University - Department of Economics and Business Economics

Markus Jantti

Stockholm University

Robin Naylor

University of Warwick - Department of Economics

Date Written: September 2007

Abstract

We present comparable evidence on intergenerational earnings mobility for Denmark, Finland, Norway, the UK and the US, with a focus on the role of gender and marital status. We confirm that earnings mobility in the Nordic countries is typically greater than in the US and in the UK, but find that, in contrast to all other groups, for married women mobility is approximately uniform across countries when estimates are based on women's own earnings. Defining offspring outcomes in terms of family earnings, on the other hand, leads to estimates of intergenerational mobility in the Nordic countries which exceed those for the US and the UK for both men and women, single and married. Unlike in the Nordic countries, we find that married women with children and with husbands from affluent backgrounds tend to exhibit reduced labor supply in the US and the UK. In these countries, it is the combination of assortative mating and labor supply responses which weakens the association between married women's own earnings and their parents' earnings.

Keywords: assortative mating, intergenerational mobility, joint labor supply

JEL Classification: J3, J62

Suggested Citation

Raaum, Oddbjørn and Bratsberg, Bernt and Røed, Knut and Osterbacka, Eva and Eriksson, Tor and Jantti, Markus and Naylor, Robin A., Marital Sorting, Household Labor Supply, and Intergenerational Earnings Mobility across Countries (September 2007). IZA Discussion Paper No. 3037, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1020578 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1020578

Oddbjørn Raaum

University of Oslo - Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research ( email )

Gaustadalleen 21
N-0317 Oslo
Norway

Bernt Bratsberg

University of Oslo - Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research ( email )

Gaustadalleen 21
N-0349 Oslo
Norway

Kansas State University - Department of Economics ( email )

Manhattan, KS 66502-4001
United States

Knut Røed (Contact Author)

Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research ( email )

Gaustadalleen 21
N-0349 Oslo
Norway

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Eva Osterbacka

Åbo Akademi University

Piispankatu 16
Abo, Turku FIN-20500
Finland

Tor Eriksson

Aarhus University - Department of Economics and Business Economics ( email )

Fuglesangs Allé 4
Aarhus, 8210
Denmark
45 87164978 (Phone)

Markus Jantti

Stockholm University ( email )

Swedish Institute for Social Research
Stockholm, SE-10691
Sweden
+468162645 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.abo.fi/~mjantti/

Robin A. Naylor

University of Warwick - Department of Economics ( email )

Coventry CV4 7AL
United Kingdom

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