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  5. Gender Identity, Co-working Spouses and Relative Income Within Households

Gender Identity, Co-working Spouses and Relative Income Within Households

Abstract

Bertrand, Kamenica and Pan (2015) document that in the United States there is a discontinuity to the right of 0.5 in the distribution of households according to the female share of total earnings which they attribute to the existence of a gender identity norm. We provide an alternative explanation for this discontinuity. Using linked employer-employee data from Finland, we show that the discontinuity emerges as a result of equalization and convergence of earnings in co-working couples, and it is associated with an increase in the relative earnings of women, rather than a decrease as predicted by the norm.

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