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Do cohabiters work and earn like married or single individuals?

Alicia Adsera, Princeton University
Federica Querin, Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna

As individuals enter in a union, the literature expects both gains in overall financial assets as well as within household specialization (with marriage, in particular, leading women to reduce their attachment to the labor market). Whether cohabitation leads to the same degree of specialization is an empirical question. In this paper, we use the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) to analyze changes in total household income, hours of work and earnings among individuals in 14 European countries as they move between different union statuses (including cohabitation). Results show that women reduce both hours and earnings at the time of the transition into marriage, but not so when entering cohabiting unions. Men increase effort at the time of entering a union, both marriage and cohabitation. Overall, labor division is weaker among European cohabitants than previously found for the United States. Results vary depending on the presence of children and on the level of cohabitation prevailing in the country. We discuss also how selection may explain some of these findings.

Keywords: Gender, Life course analysis, Inequality

See extended abstract.

  Presented in Session P15.