An Investment-and-Marriage Model with Differential Fecundity: On the College Gender Gap
Journal of Political Economy, 129(5), 1464-1486, May 2021
31 Pages Posted: 27 Feb 2014 Last revised: 15 Jun 2022
Date Written: September 23, 2020
Abstract
I build an investment-and-marriage model to provide a new explanation of the reversed college gender gap, i.e., more women than men are going to college. The explanation is based on differential fecundity and an equilibrium marriage-market effect. The model also sheds light on gender-specific relationships between age at marriage and midlife personal income for American men and women, and the evolving relationship between age at marriage and spousal income for American women.
Keywords: college gender gap, earnings gender gap, marriage age, nonassortative matching
JEL Classification: C78, D1, J1
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation