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  2. ASSA Annual Meeting
  3. 2026
  4. Preliminary Program
  5. New Perspectives on Gender Differences in Earnings, Employment, and Household Mobility
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New Perspectives on Gender Differences in Earnings, Employment, and Household Mobility

Paper Session

Monday, Jan. 5, 2026 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM (EST)

Philadelphia Convention Center
Hosted By: American Economic Association
  • Chair: Marta Lachowska, Upjohn Institute for Employment Research

Moving to Opportunity, Together

Matthew J. Notowidigdo
,
University of Chicago
Seema Jayachandran
,
Princeton University
Lea Nassal
,
University of Warwick
Heather Sarsons
,
University of British Columbia
Elin Sundberg
,
Uppsala University

Abstract

Many couples face a trade-off between advancing one spouse’s career or the other’s. We study this trade-off using administrative data from Germany and Sweden. We first conduct an event study analysis of couples moving across commuting zones and find that relocation increases men’s earnings more than women’s, with strikingly similar patterns in Germany and Sweden. Using a sample of mass layoff events, we then find that couples in both countries are more likely to relocate in response to the man being laid off compared to the woman. We investigate whether these gendered patterns reflect men’s higher potential earnings or a gender norm that prioritizes men’s career advancement. We provide suggestive evidence of a gender norm using variation in norms within Germany. We then develop and estimate a model of household decision-making in which households can place more weight on the income earned by the man compared to the woman. In both countries, the estimated model can accurately reproduce the reduced-form results, including those not used to estimate the model. The results point to a role for gender norms in explaining the gender gap in the returns to joint moves.

Joint Child Custody and Men's Mobility

Abigail Adams
,
University of Oxford
Oğuz Bayraktar
,
University of Oxford
Thomas Jorgensen
,
University of Copenhagen
Hamish Low
,
University of Oxford
Alessandra Voena
,
Stanford University

Abstract

The legal regime governing the rights and responsibilities of separated parents for shared children has been transformed since the 1980s. Joint custody is now authorized in many developed economies and is often the default arrangement for raising a child following separation. Unlike monetary transfers, time transfers between separated parents can be very costly when individuals live apart. We first show that the interstate migration rate of separated fathers has fallen significantly more than that of married fathers since the 1980s. We then use the staggered adoption of joint custody laws across US states to analyze their impact on the migration and economic outcomes of separated parents. We find that joint custody arrangements reduce the interstate migration of separated fathers by 45% but has no significant impact on the mobility of mothers. This impact is greatest for College educated fathers. We find evidence that joint custody increases the labor market attachment of separated mothers with a weakly negative impact on the economic outcomes of fathers.

Firms and the Gender Wage Gap: A Comparison of Eleven Countries

Marco Palladino
,
Banque de France
Antoine Bertheau
,
NHH
Alexander Hijzen
,
OECD
Astrid Kunze
,
NHH
Marta Lachowska
,
Upjohn Institute

Abstract

We document the role of employer-specific wage premiums in shaping the gender hourly wage gap using matched employer-employee data from the United States (Washington State) and ten European countries. Our central finding is that the contribution of firm wage differences to the gender wage gap varies by a factor of three across countries. The sources of these firm-level differences differ markedly. In countries such as Hungary and the United States, the within-firm pay-setting gap (women paid less at the same firm) dominates. In contrast, in countries like Germany, Portugal, and Norway, the between-firm sorting gap (women working at lower-paying firms) is the primary driver. We also document several robust cross-country patterns: gender wage gaps are consistently small among younger workers, and women’s wages are systematically less responsive than men’s to firm-level productivity.

Discussant(s)
Camille Landais
,
London School of Economics
JEL Classifications
  • J1 - Demographic Economics
  • J3 - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs