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DOMENICO TABASSO - PAPERS

JOB MARKET PAPER

With or Without You: Divorce Rates and Intra-household Time Allocation

ABSTRACT:

This paper investigates the relationship between the probability of divorce and marriage specific investments. As these investments in terms of childcare and household activities are likely to increase the marital surplus, they are consequently likely to decrease the risk of divorce. All such activities, however, are characterized by gender role bias through, for example, social norms. In periods in which married women enjoy greater outside options (e.g., by increasing their labor force participation), it is expected that households in which the husband takes on typically female chores are less likely to dissolve, while couples in which the wife takes on typically male chores are more likely to divorce. The paper tests this hypothesis using data from the National Longitudinal Survey (NLS) of Mature Women, the NLS Young Women, and the NLSY79. The prediction is strongly supported by the data with respect to older cohorts while it loses empirical relevance when tested on younger individuals. Furthermore, asymmetric effects between genders gain importance over time. Finally, an explanation for the relationship between divorce and marital investments is offered in terms of increasing intra-household time consumption complementarities. To this end, data from the American Time Use Surveys from 1965 to 2005 are studied to illustrate how time spent together by partners in the same household has become increasingly crucial in the American family.

Research Papers

Temporary Contracts and Monopsony Power in the UK Labour Market

ABSTRACT:

This paper addresses the issue of the presence and the extent of equalizing differences between temporary and permanent workers. The assumption of perfect competition in the labour market is directly questioned and a simple duopsonistic model is developed with the aim of capturing the main sources of differentiation among workers. The empirical analysis, based on several waves of the UK Labour Force Data, tends to confirm several of the hypotheses suggested by the model and emphasizes how in the short run workers who have experienced a change in their job status can expect a career trajectory in line with the theory on compensating differentials. In particular, shifts from temporary to permanent contracts tend to relate to a reduction in wage and a simultaneous increase in travel-to-work distance, while the wage dynamic related to the workers shifting from a temporary contract to another temporary position appears to be directly linked to individual characteristics.