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How Gender Identity Determines the Chore Wars

Ericsson, Sanna LU (2015) NEKN01 20151
Department of Economics
Abstract
Existing theories of how spouses divide the household labour have conflicting implications. Standard models of comparative advantages and bargaining models both predict that when a woman earns more money than her husband she will do less household work. However, identity theory predicts that deviating from prescribed gender behaviour causes discomfort, and therefore a woman could compensate for violating traditional gender roles by increasing her household work when she earns more money than her husband.
Histograms over the distribution of relative wages and households show a discontinuity at the point where the wife starts earning more money than her husband. This finding not only proves that there is self-selection in the data, but it... (More)
Existing theories of how spouses divide the household labour have conflicting implications. Standard models of comparative advantages and bargaining models both predict that when a woman earns more money than her husband she will do less household work. However, identity theory predicts that deviating from prescribed gender behaviour causes discomfort, and therefore a woman could compensate for violating traditional gender roles by increasing her household work when she earns more money than her husband.
Histograms over the distribution of relative wages and households show a discontinuity at the point where the wife starts earning more money than her husband. This finding not only proves that there is self-selection in the data, but it also points at the prominent role gender identity plays within households. By comparing the results of both OLS and FE regressions, I can disentangle the effects of gender-awareness and of relative wages on the division of chores within households. I show that the total amount of household work done in a household depends on the couples’ level of gender-awareness. Furthermore, I show that gender identity has stronger explanatory power than comparative advantages and bargaining power on the behaviour of spouses when the woman earns more money than the man, even in the less gender-aware couples. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Ericsson, Sanna LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
A study of relative wages, gender identity and division of household labour
course
NEKN01 20151
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
family labour supply, household bargaining, home production, relative wages, gender identity
language
Swedish
id
5469417
date added to LUP
2015-06-30 10:55:22
date last changed
2015-06-30 10:55:22
@misc{5469417,
  abstract     = {{Existing theories of how spouses divide the household labour have conflicting implications. Standard models of comparative advantages and bargaining models both predict that when a woman earns more money than her husband she will do less household work. However, identity theory predicts that deviating from prescribed gender behaviour causes discomfort, and therefore a woman could compensate for violating traditional gender roles by increasing her household work when she earns more money than her husband. 
	Histograms over the distribution of relative wages and households show a discontinuity at the point where the wife starts earning more money than her husband. This finding not only proves that there is self-selection in the data, but it also points at the prominent role gender identity plays within households. By comparing the results of both OLS and FE regressions, I can disentangle the effects of gender-awareness and of relative wages on the division of chores within households. I show that the total amount of household work done in a household depends on the couples’ level of gender-awareness. Furthermore, I show that gender identity has stronger explanatory power than comparative advantages and bargaining power on the behaviour of spouses when the woman earns more money than the man, even in the less gender-aware couples.}},
  author       = {{Ericsson, Sanna}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{How Gender Identity Determines the Chore Wars}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}