Technology and the Changing Family: a Unified Model of Marriage, Divorce Educational Attainment and Married Female Labor-Force Participation

• Authors: Jeremy Greenwood, Georgi Kocharkov, Cezar Santos and Nezih Guner.
• BSE Working Paper: 808 | September 15
• Keywords: education , inequality , assortative mating , married female labor supply , household production , marriage and divorce
• JEL codes: E13, J12, J22, O11

Marriage has declined since 1960, with the drop being bigger for non-college educated individuals versus college educated ones. Divorce has increased, more so for the non-college educated. Additionally, positive assortative mating has risen. Income inequality among households has also widened. A unified model of marriage, divorce, educational attainment and married female labor-force participation is developed and estimated to fit the postwar U.S. data. Two underlying driving forces are considered: technological progress in the household sector and shifts in the wage structure. The analysis emphasizes the joint role that educational attainment, married female labor-force participation, and assortative mating play in determining income inequality.