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Title: Earnings Inequality and Changes in Family Structure: Evidence from Longitudinal Data on U.S. States

Citation Type: Conference Paper

Publication Year: 2007

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Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between marriage and earnings inequality and the relationship between marriage and uncertainty in the labor market, as measured by long-run unemployment rates. We also examine the effects of inequality and uncertainty on other dependent variables concerning family structure (divorce, fertility). Our analysis shows that (i) with a slightly different specification, previous findings on the relationship between inequality and marriage rates do not hold up; (ii) uncertainty in the form of long term unemployment is shown to have a significantly negative effect on the marriage hazard and may be more relevant for explaining within-state changes in marriage rates than inequality; (iii) the uncertainty/inequality hypothesis holds up relatively well in comparison to other leading hypotheses, although none are able to explain more than a fraction of the trend in marriage; (iv) uncertainty negatively effects divorce rates, providing evidence that uncertainty discourages individuals from making major changes in their lives.

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Authors: Coughlin, Tristan; Drewianka, Scott

Conference Name: Midwest Economic Association

Publisher Location: Minneapolis, MN

Data Collections: IPUMS CPS

Topics: Family and Marriage, Fertility and Mortality, Labor Force and Occupational Structure

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