Essays on the Economics of Work and Non-Traditional Families.

Abstract

Recent changes in the structure of families and households suggest a need for family economists to broaden their focus beyond the traditional nuclear family. This dissertation examines the trade-offs between work and family among two groups of non-traditional families: same-sex couples and committed couples who live apart.

The first essay shows that marriage-market incentives can motivate observed differences in work and family arrangements between sexual minorities and heterosexual men and women. I develop the first formal model of a same-sex marriage market and observe that, while marriage-market competitors are distinct from prospective partners in different-sex marriage markets, they are identical in same-sex marriage markets. In light of this structural difference, I show that same-sex marriage markets engender stronger incentives than different-sex marriage markets for people of each sex to prepare for work in both the home and the market, and may engender stronger incentives for couples to adopt egalitarian divisions of labor.

The second essay, which is collaborative work with Uniko Chen, Brooke Helppie McFall, and Robert J. Willis, uses data from an original survey project to present a current, comprehensive summary of the job-market outcomes of new entrants to the junior PhD job market in economics. We provide the first representative description of experiences with applications, interviews, fly-outs, and job offers among new entrants to the job market, and we demonstrate a correspondence between job-market outcomes and pre-market preferences and expectations using unique prospective measures. On the whole, our results suggest that experiences of most job candidates are positive.

The third essay, which is collaborative work with Brooke Helppie McFall, uses data from the same survey project to assess the impact of dual-career location constraints on the initial job placements and relationship outcomes of new economists. We provide the first estimates of the prevalence and predictors of tied migration and non-cohabitation based on representative data from a known sub-population of dual-career couples. We find that non-cohabitation is an important margin of adjustment for couples facing dual-career location constraints, especially when they face large career costs of living together or are not deeply engaged in family life.