Who Benefits from Marriage?†

  1. Esfandiar Maasoumi1,
  2. Daniel L. Millimet2,
  3. Dipanwita Sarkar3

Article first published online: 6 OCT 2008

DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0084.2008.00515.x

Issue

Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics

Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics

Volume 71, Issue 1, pages 1–33, February 2009

Additional Information

How to Cite

Maasoumi, E., Millimet, D. L. and Sarkar, D. (2009), Who Benefits from Marriage?. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 71: 1–33. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0084.2008.00515.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Economics, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322-2240 and School of Business and Economics, Swansea University, Wales, UK (e-mail: esfandiar.maasoumi@emory.edu)

  2. 2

    Department of Economics, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275-0496, USA (e-mail: millimet@mail.smu.edu)

  3. 3

    Department of Economics, University of Louisiana-Monroe, ADMN 2-31, 700 University Avenue, Monroe, LA 71209, USA (e-mail: sarkar@ulm.edu)

  • †

    The authors wish to thank an anonymous referee for many helpful comments.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 16 JAN 2009
  2. Article first published online: 6 OCT 2008
  3. Final Manuscript Received: May 2008

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Keywords:

  • C14;
  • C21;
  • C33;
  • D31;
  • J12

Abstract

The phenomenon that married men earn higher average wages than unmarried men – the marriage premium – is well known. However, the robustness of the premium across the wage distribution and the underlying causes of the marriage premium are unclear. Focusing on the entire wage distribution and employing recently developed semi-non-parametric tests for quantile treatment effects, our findings cast doubt on the robustness of the premium. We find that the premium is explained by selection above the median, whereas a positive premium is obtained only at very low wages. The causal effect at low wages may be attributable to employer discrimination.

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