A semiparametric analysis of the rising breadwinner role of women in the UK

Abstract

This paper describes the changes in the relative position of women in the family—as measured by their share of household labour income—in the UK between 1994 and 2004. Using a methodology that borrows from DiNardo et al. (Econometrica 64:1001–44, 1996), it assesses the contribution of changes in men’s and women’s characteristics, the market returns to these characteristics and the role of assortative mating. The main factor which accounts for the increase in the relative female earnings share is the rising female labour force participation across the whole distribution of the female breadwinner index. Changes in assortative mating have a modest positive impact on the index at the mean, 25th and 75th percentiles of the distribution. This is explained by increasing positive assortative mating between 1994 and 2004.