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Article
Female Earnings and the Return to Spousal Education over Time
Journal of Family and Economic Issues
  • Nicholas A. Jolly, Marquette University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-2019
Publisher
Springer
Disciplines
Abstract

Using U.S. Census data from 1960 to 2000 and American Community Survey data from 2010, this paper estimates the relationship between the husband’s educational attainment and his wife’s annual labor earnings. For full-time working wives, each additional year of completed schooling by the husband was associated with a 2% increase in his wife’s earnings. The returns to spousal education were larger when the couple worked in the same occupation. The estimated relationship has increased slightly since 1970. This increase was larger for younger wives. These results are consistent with cross-productivity and documented increases in educational homogamy.

Comments

Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Vol. 40, No. 4 (December 2019): 691-709. DOI.

Citation Information
Nicholas A. Jolly. "Female Earnings and the Return to Spousal Education over Time" Journal of Family and Economic Issues (2019) ISSN: 1058-0476
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/nicholas-jolly/11/