Return to search

Coupled careers: Win-win or zero-sum? : How the partner’s occupational status relates to individual labor market outcomes

The dynamics between partners’ careers have implications for household and gender inequality as heterosexual unions are usually formed by two individuals with similar educational attainment where the man has a stronger labor market position. This paper examines how the partner’s occupational status relates to individual career outcomes, and how the association varies by gender. The literature reports conflicting expectations on the subject. Social capital theory suggests that an occupationally successful partner can be beneficial to one’s career because of useful contacts, information, and advice. Economic theory assumes a negative relationship between the resources of the partner and own career outcomes due to less time and effort spent in the labor market. Using multiple regression analysis predicting hourly wage, annual income, and career progression, the contrasting hypotheses are tested on Swedish panel data including 1,065 married or cohabitating individuals. Results show a positive correlation between the partner’s occupational status at the start of cohabitation and hourly wage and career progression. The association does not differ significantly between men and women. However, the findings show that gender is more important than the partners’ occupational status for the interaction between careers in dual-earner couples.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-144410
Date January 2017
CreatorsLewenhagen, Lars
PublisherStockholms universitet, Sociologiska institutionen
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Page generated in 0.0018 seconds