Publication type
Journal Article
Authors
Publication date
February 15, 2024
Summary:
Objective:
To examine the effect of marriage entry on annual net rather than gross earnings across different institutional settings.
Background
Previous research focused on men's gross wage marital premium to explore whether selection or specialization explains premiums. However, gross wages do not reflect disposable resources because taxes still have to be deducted. As the tax treatment varies across countries and by marital status, it is also relevant to consider such aspects.
Method
We use panel data from the United States (PSID), Germany (SOEP), and the United Kingdom (UKHLS) to examine annual male net earnings changes over marriage entry using fixed effect models with individual slopes. The models enable us to assess marriage-related net earnings while adjusting for heterogeneous age slopes before marriage in addition to any time-constant heterogeneity. Our sample contains 3244 US men, 4581 German men, and 7140 British men.
Results
Our results reveal a male marital net earnings premium only in Germany—a country with sizeable institutional marriage privileges. We go on to show heterogeneity in marriage effects by cohort, partner's education, and children. Results highlight that men from earlier cohorts and those married to partners with low education tend to benefit more.
Conclusion
Results add novel insights to our understanding of marital premiums and highlight the relevance of tax policy contexts as an institutional driver underlying marital premiums.
Published in
Journal of Marriage and Family
Volume and page numbers
Volume: 86 , p.176 -198
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12937
ISSN
222445
Subjects
Notes
Open Access
© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Marriage and Family published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Council on Family Relations.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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