THE SEXUAL DIVISION OF LABOR WITHIN HOUSEHOLDS: COMPARISONS OF COUPLES TO ROOMMATES

摘要

Our paper is the first to compare couples to roommates to study labor-market specialization. Roommates are similar to couples in that they live together. Roommates, however, have no incentives to specialize with respect to labor-market traits. Theory predicts that couples can maximize household resources by specializing. Theory also predicts that male/female couples will exhibit more labor-market specialization than will same-sex couples. When we compare the earnings of same-sex couples to same-sex roommates, we find that members of gay couples are less alike than male roommates, and members of lesbian couples are less alike than female roommates. Having earnings that are less similar suggests specialization with respect to earnings. However, gay and lesbian couples are indistinguishable from roommates with respect to hours worked. When we compare opposite-sex couples to opposite-sex roommates, we find that couples are less alike than roommates with respect to all labor-market measures, which suggests specialization in both earnings and hours worked. Married couples appear to specialize more than unmarried couples, as shown by our comparisons to opposite-sex roommates.