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An Investigation into the Positive Effect of an Educated Wife on Her Husband’s Earnings: The Case of Japan in the Period between 2000 and 2003

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Abstract

We analyze the effect of a wife’s human capital on her husband’s earnings, using individual-level data for Japan in the period 2000–2003. We find a positive association between a wife’s education and her husband’s earnings, which can be attributed to the assortative mating effect as well as the positive effect of an educated wife on her husband’s productivity. We divide the sample into those couples with non-working wives and those with working wives, and also employ an estimation strategy proposed by Jepsen (Review of Economics of the Household 3:197–214, 2005), attempting to control for the assortative mating effect. Our regression analysis provides suggestive evidence that educated wives increase their husbands’ productivity and earnings only when they are non-workers and have sufficient time to support their husbands.

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Notes

  1. As an example of social learning, Yamamura (2008) reports a case study from Japan in which people learned how to use computers from neighbors that already owned one.

  2. Their parents’ schooling is also found to be positively associated with his earnings (e.g., Heckman and Hotz 1986; Lam and Shoeni, 1993, 1994).

  3. It is widely observed that a wife’s human capital positively influences a husband’s earnings; for instance, in Israel (Neuman and Ziderman 1992), Iran (Scully 1979), the Philippines (Boulier and Rosenzweig 1984), Malaysia (Amin and Jepsen 2005), and Brazil (Lam and Shoeni, 1993, 1994; Tiefenthaler, 1997).

  4. Data for this secondary analysis, “Japanese General Social Surveys (JGSS), Ichiro Tanioka,” were provided by the Social Science Japan Data Archive, Information Center for Social Science Research on Japan, Institute of Social Science, The University of Tokyo.

  5. It is possible that a husband’s earnings are more appropriate than income in this context. However, for this paper, a husband’s income is not used, as this data was not available.

  6. Admittedly, this argument is not entirely convincing, as one does not have to meet in school to mate assortatively.

  7. Precisely speaking, the decision making process of a wife’s labor participation should be considered to control for self-selection. This is, however, beyond the scope of this note and is an issue to be addressed in a future study.

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Correspondence to Eiji Yamamura.

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Yamamura, E., Mano, Y. An Investigation into the Positive Effect of an Educated Wife on Her Husband’s Earnings: The Case of Japan in the Period between 2000 and 2003. Int Adv Econ Res 18, 409–416 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11294-012-9368-x

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