Investment in Schooling and the Marriage Market

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chiappori, Pierre-Andre; Iyigun, Murat; Weiss, Yoram
• 署名单位: Columbia University; University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Boulder; Harvard University; Tel Aviv University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.99.5.1689
• 发表日期: 2009
• 页码: 1689-1713
• 关键词: division-of-labor; premarital investments; women; divorce; gap

摘要

We present a model in which investment in schooling generates two kinds of returns: the labor-market return, resulting from higher wages, and a marriage-market return, defined as the impact of schooling on the marital surplus share one can extract. Men and women may have different incentives to invest in schooling because of different market wages or household roles. This asymmetry can yield a mixed equilibrium with some educated individuals marrying uneducated spouses. When the labor-market return to schooling rises, home production demands less time, and the traditional spousal labor division norms weaken, more women may invest in schooling than men. (JEL I21, J12, J24, J31)