Female Earnings and the Return to Spousal Education over Time

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-2019

Publisher

Springer

Source Publication

Journal of Family and Economic Issues

Source ISSN

1058-0476

Abstract

Using U.S. Census data from 1960 to 2000 and American Community Survey data from 2010, this paper estimates the relationship between the husband’s educational attainment and his wife’s annual labor earnings. For full-time working wives, each additional year of completed schooling by the husband was associated with a 2% increase in his wife’s earnings. The returns to spousal education were larger when the couple worked in the same occupation. The estimated relationship has increased slightly since 1970. This increase was larger for younger wives. These results are consistent with cross-productivity and documented increases in educational homogamy.

Comments

Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Vol. 40, No. 4 (December 2019): 691-709. DOI.

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