Household Specialization and the Male Marriage Wage Premium
研究检验了家庭专业化假说，即婚姻让丈夫专注市场工作、妻子负责家务，从而提升丈夫工资。但基于美国家庭调查面板数据发现，已婚男性家务时间与单身男性相近，且控制家务后婚姻工资溢价变化不大，表明该假说在本样本中不成立。
Empirical research has consistently shown that married men have substantially higher wages, on average, than otherwise similar unmarried men. One commonly cited hypothesis to explain this pattern is that marriage allows one spouse to specialize in market production and the other to specialize in home production, enabling the former—usually the husband—to acquire more market-specific human capital and, ultimately, earn higher wages. The authors test this hypothesis using panel data from the National Survey of Families and Households. The data reveal that married men spent virtually the same amount of time on home production as did single men, albeit on different types of housework. Estimates from a fixed effects wage equation indicate that the male marriage wage premium is not substantially affected by controls for home production activities. Household specialization, the authors conclude, does not appear to have been responsible for the marriage premium in this sample.