The association between husbands' and wives' labor market positions in the Netherlands

C.M.C. Verbakel, R. Luijkx, P.M. de Graaf

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)
296 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This study describes (1) the association between husbands’ and wives’ employment statuses and occupations in the Netherlands, (2) establishes possible trends in the association, and (3) explores to what extent the association can be attributed to educational homogamy. We use 12 waves of the Dutch Labor Force Survey (1994–2006), and use log-linear models to analyze the associations between the labor market positions of spouses. Overall, we find positive associations, implying that favorable positions are accumulated within households. For couples with children, the association between spouses’ employment status is negative, which means that they divide paid labor. Over birth cohorts, the association between spouses’ employment statuses becomes stronger, and between spouses’ occupational success remains stable. Education is an important contributor to the occupational association, but still half of the association between spouses’ success cannot be attributed to spouses’ education.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)257-276
JournalResearch in Social Stratification and Mobility
Volume26
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2008

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