Assortative Mating and Women’s Working-Hours Decisions in Turkey

Year 2019, Volume: 39 Issue: 2, 411 - 423, 31.12.2019

Murat Anıl Mercan

Abstract

Wives’ decisions regarding their working hours and their assortative mating levels with respect to income affect the main determinants of family-income inequality in any given country. In this paper, I estimate the degree of sorting between both husbands’ earnings and wives’ working hours and between husbands’ earnings and wives’ earnings in Turkey. For the analyses I have used the Turkish Statistical Institute’s Labor Force Surveys conducted from 2004 to 2017, estimated the assortative mating coefficient for each year separately, and then pooled the data. The results indicate that positive assortative mating in terms of earnings exists for all the analysed years. The results further suggest that a negative relationship exists between a husband’s income and his wife’s working hours in Turkey.

Keywords

Assortative mating, Gender, Labor, Turkey, Demography, Economic sociology

References

• Acemoglu, D., Autor, D. H., & Lyle, D. (2004). Women, war, and wages: The effect of female labor supply on the wage structure at midcentury. Journal of Political Economy, 112(3), 497–551. doi: 10.1086/383100
• Aksoy, N., Felek, Ş., Yayla, N., & Çeviş, İ. (2019). Türkiye’de Kadın İstihdamı Ve Etkileyen Faktörler [Women’s employment in Turkey and the factors affecting it]. Yönetim ve Ekonomi Araştırmaları Dergisi, 17(3), 146–163.
• Akyol, P., & Okten, C. (2019). The role of culture on female labor supply: Evidence from Turkey.
• Arrufat, J. L., & Zabalza, A. (1986). Female labor supply with taxation, random preferences, and optimization errors. Econometrica, 54(1), 47–63.
• Astrom, J., Nakosteen, R. A., Westerlund, O., & Zimmer, M. A. (2013). Twice chosen: Spouse matching and earnings among women in first and second unions. Social Science Journal, 50(3), 277–288. doi: 10.1016/j.soscij.2013.05.004
• Aysan, M. F. (2014). Türkiye’nin demografik dönüşümü ve yeni meydan okumalar [Turkey’s demographic transformation and new challenges]. In L. Sunar’s (Ed.), Türkiye’de toplumsal değişim (pp. 67–89). İstanbul: Nobel Yayinlari.
• Becker, G. S. (1973). A theory of marriage: Part I. Journal of Political Economy, 81(4), 813. Becker, G. S. (1974). A theory of marriage: Part II. Journal of Political Economy, 82(2), 11.
• Bowles, S., & Park, Y. (2005). Emulation, inequality, and work hours: Was Thorsten Veblen right? The Economic Journal, 115(507), F397–F412. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0297.2005.01042.x
• Dayioglu, M., & Baslevent, C. (2006). Female employment, earnings inequality and household well-being: The case of urban Turkey. Retrieved from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ ekd/002841/284100005.html
• Dumon, W., & Esengün, Ç. M. R. (1991). Avrupa topluluğu ülkelerinde aile politikaları [Family policies in the European community]. Sosyal Politika Çalışmaları Dergisi, 2(2).
• Duygan-Bump, B., & Guner, N. (2006). Income and consumption inequality in Turkey: What role does education play. In S. Altug & A. Filiztekin (Eds.), The Turkish economy: The real economy, corporate governance and reform and stabilization policy (pp. 63–91). Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge.
• Huang, L., & Shi, H.-L. (2015). Keeping up with the Joneses: From conspicuous consumption to conspicuous leisure? Oxford Economic Papers, 67(4), 949–962. doi: 10.1093/oep/gpv021
• İnce Yenilmez, M. (2019). Gender inequality in labor force participation in Turkey: Closing the gender gap? Yönetim ve Ekonomi Araştırmaları Dergisi, 17(3), 40–51. Jaimovich, N., & Siu, H. E. (2009). The young, the old, and the restless: Demographics and business cycle volatility. American Economic Review, 99(3), 804–826. doi: 10.1257/aer.99.3.804
• Karamollaoglua, N., & Soybilgenb, B. (2019). Determinants of Turkish female labor force participation: An analysis with manufacturing firm level data. Retrieved from http://soybilgen. com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Determinants-of-Turkish-Female-Labor-Force-ParticipationAn-Analysis-with-Manufacturing-Firm-Level-Data.pdf
• Karaoglan, D., & Okten, C. (2015). Labor-force participation of married women in Turkey: A study of the added-worker effect and the discouraged-worker effect. Emerging Markets Finance & Trade, 51(1), 274–290. doi: 10.1080/1540496x.2015.1011535
• Koç, İ., Eryurt, M. A., Adalı, T., & Seçkiner, P. (2010). Türkiye’nin demografik dönüşümü [Turkey’s demographic transformation]. Ankara, Turkey: Hacettepe Üniversitesi Nüfus Etütleri Enstitüsü. Korkmaz, M., Cesim, D. T., Yücel, A. S., & Aras, G. (2013). Türkiye’de kadın istihdamının Amerika Birleşik Devletlerindeki Kadın istihdamı ile karşılaştırılması [Comparison of women employment in Turkey with women employment in the USA]. Electronic Turkish Studies, 8(9).
• Koker, T. (2010). The establishment of Kemalist secularism in Turkey. Middle East Law and Governance, 2(1), 17–42.
• Mercan, M. A. (2012). Assortative mating and Turkish marriage market. Afyon Kocatepe Universitesi, IIBF Dergisi, XIV(1), 281–293.
• Mercan, M. A., & Karakas, M. (2015). Industry-level female-male wage gap in Turkey. Bilig, (73), 157–170.
• Morissette, R., & Hou, F. (2008). Does the labour supply of wives respond to husbands’ wages? Canadian evidence from micro data and grouped data. Canadian Journal of Economics-Revue Canadienne D Economique, 41(4), 1185–1210.
• Nakosteen, R. A., & Zimmer, M. A. (2001). Spouse selection and earnings: Evidence of marital sorting. Economic Inquiry, 39(2), 201–213.
• Özgür, E. (2013). Yaşa göre değer farklılıkları ve siyasi kuşak aidiyeti [Value differences in terms of age and belonging to political generations]. İstanbul Üniversitesi Sosyoloji Dergisi, 3(26), 45–76.
• Schwartz, C. R. (2010). Earnings inequality and the changing association between spouses’ earnings. American Journal of Sociology, 115(5), 1524–1557.
• Siow, A. (2015). Testing Becker’s theory of positive assortative matching. Journal of Labor Economics, 33(2), 409–441.
• Talas, E., & Çakmak, F. (2013). Türkiye’de kadınların işgücüne katılımılarının kohort analizi [Cohort analysis of women’s participation in the labor force in Turkey]. Ekonometri ve İstatistik e-Dergisi, 18, 18–34.
• Tam, H. (2011). U-shaped female labor participation with economic development: Some panel data evidence. Economics Letters, 110(2), 140–142. doi: 10.1016/j.econlet.2010.11.003
• Tansel, A. (2002). Economic development and female labor force participation in Turkey: Time-series evidence and cross-province estimates.
• Tezcan, S., & Coskun, Y. (2004). Türkiye’de 20. yüzyilin son çeyreğinde kadinlarda ilk evlenme yaşi değişimi ve günümüz evlilik özellikleri [Changes in the age of first marrying in the last quarter of the 20th century and present-day marriage characteristics of women in Turkey]. Nüfusbilim, 26(1), 15–34.