Technology and the Changing Family: A Unified Model of Marriage, Divorce, Educational Attainment and Married Female Labor-Force Participation

63 Pages Posted: 24 Nov 2011 Last revised: 3 Mar 2015

See all articles by Jeremy Greenwood

Jeremy Greenwood

University of Pennsylvania - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Nezih Guner

ICREA-MOVE; Autonomous University of Barcelona; Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (Barcelona GSE)

Georgi Kocharkov

Deutsche Bundesbank; Goethe University Frankfurt - House of Finance

Cezar Santos

Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) - FGV/EPGE Escola Brasileira de Economia e Finanças

Multiple version iconThere are 4 versions of this paper

Date Written: February 6, 2015

Abstract

Marriage has declined since 1960, with the drop being bigger for non-college educated individuals versus college educated ones. Divorce has increased, more so for the non-college educated. Additionally, positive assortative mating has risen. Income inequality among households has also widened. A unified model of marriage, divorce, educational attainment and married female labor-force participation is developed and estimated to fit the postwar U.S. data. Two underlying driving forces are considered: technological progress in the household sector and shifts in the wage structure. The analysis emphasizes the joint role that educational attainment, married female labor-force participation, and assortative mating play in determining household income inequality.

Keywords: Assortative mating, education, married female labor supply, household production, marriage and divorce, household income inequality

JEL Classification: D31, E13, J12, J22, O11

Suggested Citation

Greenwood, Jeremy and Guner, Nezih and Kocharkov, Georgi and Kocharkov, Georgi and Santos, Cezar, Technology and the Changing Family: A Unified Model of Marriage, Divorce, Educational Attainment and Married Female Labor-Force Participation (February 6, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1963432 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1963432

Jeremy Greenwood

University of Pennsylvania - Department of Economics ( email )

Ronald O. Perelman Center for Political Science
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HOME PAGE: http://jeremygreenwood.net

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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Nezih Guner (Contact Author)

ICREA-MOVE ( email )

Campus de Bellaterra-UAB Edifici B (s/n)
EDIFICI B
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, Barcelona 08193
Spain

Autonomous University of Barcelona ( email )

Plaça Cívica
Cerdañola del Valles
Barcelona, Barcelona 08193
Spain

Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (Barcelona GSE) ( email )

Ramon Trias Fargas, 25-27
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Spain

Georgi Kocharkov

Deutsche Bundesbank ( email )

Wilhelm-Epstein-Strasse 14
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Germany

Goethe University Frankfurt - House of Finance ( email )

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Germany

Cezar Santos

Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) - FGV/EPGE Escola Brasileira de Economia e Finanças ( email )

Praia de Botafogo 190/1125, CEP
Rio de Janeiro RJ 22253-900
Brazil

HOME PAGE: http://sites.google.com/site/czrsantos