Katherin Barg

Does marriage pay more than cohabitation

Purpose - Empirical research has unambiguously shown that married men receive higher wages than unmarried, whereas a wage premium for cohabiters is not as evident yet. This paper aims to exploit the observed difference between the marital and the cohabiting wage premium in Germany to draw conclusions about the sources, typically explained by specialisation (e.g. husbands being more productive because their wives take over household chores) or selection (high earnings potentials being more attractive on the marriage market). Design/methodology/approach - The paper analyzes the cohabiting and the marital wage premium in Germany using a shifting panel design for marriages and move-ins from 1993 to 2004 in the German Socio-Economic Panel. With non-parametric matching models men who get married (treatment group I) are matched with cohabiting respectively single men (control groups) and men who move in with a partner (treatment group II) with singles. Findings - Matching reveals that higher wages are mostly due to positive selection – into marriage as well as into cohabitation. Supplementary analysis of intra-household time use suggests that specialization, if any, is part of the selection process from single to cohabitation to marriage. Originality/value - This is the first application of non-parametric matching in a comparative study of the marital and the cohabiting wage premium and thus provides new insights into their respective sources. It is also the first investigation of family-status-related wage premiums in Germany.

Educational Choice and Cultural Capital: Examining Social Stratification within an Institutionalized Dialogue between Family and School

This article analyses the impact of social class on families’ and teachers’ decision-making within an institutionalized family–school dialogue in France. The dialogue decides which upper secondary school track a student will attend and consists of three main steps: (1) family’s school track request; (2) staff meeting’s subsequent school track proposition; and (3) family’s optional rejection of the staff’s proposition. Using national longitudinal data, I find that parents’ cultural capital importantly mediates secondary effects (i.e. social class effects that remain after controlling for school performance) on families’ requests and their rejections of staffs’ propositions. Social class effects on staffs’ propositions are accounted for by families’ requests and student school performance. Moreover families and teachers appear to choose grade retention to avoid enrolment in a lower track.

Does Marriage Pay More than Cohabitation?: Selection and Specialization Effects on Male Wages in Germany

Empirical research has unambiguously shown that married men receive higher wages than unmarried, whereas a wage premium for cohabiters is not as evident yet. Our paper exploits the observed difference between the marital and the cohabiting wage premium in Germany and thus provides new insights into their respective sources, typically explained by specialization (husbands being more productive because their wives take over household chores) or selection (high earnings potentials being more attractive on the marriage market). We analyze the cohabiting and the marital wage premium in Germany using a shifting panel design for marriages and move-ins from 1993 to 2004 in the German Socio-Economic Panel. With non-parametric matching models we match men who get married (treatment group I) with cohabiting or single men (control groups) and men who move in with a partner (treatment group II) with singles. Matching reveals that higher wages are mostly due to positive selection - into marriage as well as into cohabitation. Supplementary analysis of intra-household time use suggests that specialization, if any, is part of the selection process from single to cohabitation to marriage.