Working Paper: NBER ID: w22015
Authors: Marianne Bertrand; Patricia Corts; Claudia Olivetti; Jessica Pan
Abstract: In most of the developed world, skilled women marry at a lower rate than unskilled women. We document heterogeneity across countries in how the marriage gap for skilled women has evolved over time. As labor market opportunities for women have improved, the marriage gap has been growing in some countries but shrinking in others. We discuss a theoretical model in which the (negative) social attitudes towards working women might contribute towards the lower marriage rate of skilled women, and might also induce a non-linear relationship between their labor market prospects and their marriage outcomes. The model is suited to understand the dynamics of the marriage gap for skilled women over time within a country with set social attitudes towards working women. The model also delivers predictions about how the marriage gap for skilled women should react to changes in their labor market opportunities across countries with more or less conservative attitudes towards working women. We test the key predictions of this model in a panel of 23 developed countries, as well as in a panel of US states.
Keywords: Marriage Gap; Skilled Women; Labor Market Opportunities; Social Norms
JEL Codes: J0; J01; J11; J12; J16
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| negative social attitudes towards working women (J16) | lower marriage rates for skilled women (J12) |
| labor market opportunities for skilled women (J21) | lower marriage rates for skilled women (J12) |
| conservative gender norms (J16) | greater marriage deficit for skilled women compared to unskilled women (J79) |
| increase in skilled women's wages (J31) | increase in marriage deficit in traditional societies (J12) |
| increase in skilled women's wages (J31) | decrease in marriage deficit in gender-equal societies (J12) |
| low wage levels (J31) | lower marriage probability for skilled women (J79) |
| increase in labor market opportunities for skilled women (J49) | marriage gap potentially reverses (J12) |