Patricia A. McManus

Losers and winners : The financial consequences of separation and divorce for men

Contrary to conventional thinking, the majority of partnered men in the United States lose economic status when their unions dissolve. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this analysis shows that for most men the primary source of economic decline after union dissolution is their inability to fully compensate for the loss of their partners income. A secondary source of economic decline is an increase in compulsory and voluntary support payments. Welfare state tax and transfer mechanisms have a much smaller overall impact on changes in men s living standards following separation. Although most men experience a decline in living standards following union dissolution, mens outcomes are heterogeneous, and the minority of men who relied on their partners for less than one-fifth of pre-dissolution income typically gain from separation and divorce. The data show a clear trend toward greater economic interdependence in American partnerships, and this trend appears to increase the proportion of men who suffer a reduced standard of living following separation.

Institutions, Technical Change, and Diverging Life Chances: Earnings Mobility in the United States and Germany

Some scholars argue that growing wage inequality stems primarily from technical rather than institutional factors. However, this conclusion assumes that institutional differences operate chiefly at the level of individual industries. This article argues in contrast that important institutional effects are countrywide and demonstrates the effect of country-level institutional differences by comparing recent earnings dynamics in the United States and Germany. The recent trend in real earnings has been steeper in Germany, while the variance in earning mobility has been greater in the United State. This is partly due to higher rates of U.S. job mobility, but cross-national differences in earnings trajectories are evident even for workers who did not change jobs.

Paying the price for reconciling work and family life: Comparing the wage penalty for women's part-time work in Britain, Germany and the United States

Abstract A comparison of the institutional context of part-time employment in Britain, Germany and the United States forms the backdrop for this study of womens part-time work and wage penalties in each country. Results using panel data and fixed-effects wage estimates show three distinct “part-time regimes”. Germany has the lowest female labour force participation rates, and the smallest penalties for part-time employment. The United States and Britain each have steep penalties for part-time work, but part-time work is much more prevalent in Britain. We conclude that family policy, welfare state provision and labour market structure behave jointly to determine distinct models of work-family balance and the financial consequences associated with them.

Different Reasons, Different Results: Implications of Migration by Gender and Family Status

Previous research on migration and gendered career outcomes centers on couples and rarely examines the reason for the move. The implicit assumption is usually that households migrate in response to job opportunities. Based on a two-year panel from the Current Population Survey, this article uses stated reasons for geographic mobility to compare earnings outcomes among job migrants, family migrants, and quality-of-life migrants by gender and family status. We further assess the impact of migration on couples’ internal household economy. The effects of job-related moves that we find are reduced substantially in the fixed-effects models, indicating strong selection effects. Married women who moved for family reasons experience significant and substantial earnings declines. Consistent with conventional models of migration, we find that household earnings and income and gender specialization increase following job migration. Married women who are secondary earners have increased odds of reducing their labor supply following migration for job or family reasons. However, we also find that migrating women who contributed as equals to the household economy before the move are no more likely than nonmigrant women to exit work or to work part-time. Equal breadwinner status may protect women from becoming tied movers.