Volume 38, Number 1 (Winter) 2003
Zhang, Junsen, and Pak-Wai Liu. 2003. "Testing Becker's Prediction on Assortative Mating on Spouses' Wages." Journal of Human Resources 38(1):99-110.
It is often believed that spouses' wages are positively related even when other traits such as age and education are controlled. This is mainly based on the observation of two-earner couples. This paper uses the standard sample selection technique to correct for the sample censoring and to compute potential wages for nonworking women. Using data from Taiwan, it is found that after accounting for sample censoring and cross-productivity effects, there is weak evidence that the partial correlation between spouses' wages can be negative. This lends first weak but direct support for Becker's prediction of negative assortative mating on spouses' wages.
Both Junsen Zhang and Pak-Wai Liu are in the Department of Economics, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong. The research reported in this paper was initiated when the first author was visiting McMaster University and the University of Western Ontario. The authors are grateful to Martin Browning, Mark Rosenzweig, Byron Spencer, Wing Suen, Mike Veall, and an anonymous referee for helpful discussions or comments. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning [date 6 months after publication] through [3 years hence] from the first author (jszhang@cuhk.edu.hk).
© 2003 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X