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  5. Technology and the Changing Family: A Unified Model of Marriage, Divorce, Educational Attainment, and Married Female Labor-Force Participation

Technology and the Changing Family: A Unified Model of Marriage, Divorce, Educational Attainment, and Married Female Labor-Force Participation

  • Jeremy Greenwood
  • Nezih Guner
  • Georgi Kocharkov
  • Cezar Santos
American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics
vol. 8, no. 1, January 2016
(pp. 1-41)
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Abstract

Marriage has declined since 1960, with the drop being more significant for noncollege-educated individuals versus college-educated ones. Divorce has increased, more so for the noncollege-educated. Additionally, positive assortative mating has risen. Income inequality among households has also widened. A unified model of marriage, divorce, educational attainment, and married female labor-force participation is developed and estimated to fit the postwar US data. Two underlying driving forces are considered: technological progress in the household sector and shifts in the wage structure. The analysis emphasizes the joint role that educational attainment, married female labor-force participation, and marital structure play in determining income inequality. (JEL D13, D31, D83, I20, J12, J16, O33)

Citation

Greenwood, Jeremy, Nezih Guner, Georgi Kocharkov, and Cezar Santos. 2016. "Technology and the Changing Family: A Unified Model of Marriage, Divorce, Educational Attainment, and Married Female Labor-Force Participation." American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 8 (1): 1-41. DOI: 10.1257/mac.20130156

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • D13 Household Production and Intrahousehold Allocation
  • D31 Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
  • D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
  • I20 Education and Research Institutions: General
  • J12 Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse
  • J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
  • O33 Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
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