Joint Utility or Sub-optimal Outcomes? Household Income Development of Same-Sex and Different-Sex Couples Transitioning to Parenthood in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden

Abstract

Unequal divisions of paid work and care among new parents contribute to increasing inequalities. One explanation for this is joint utility maximization and the benefits of partners (temporarily) specializing in paid work and care. This paper examines the (dis)advantages of specializing compared to dividing tasks more equally by studying whether differences in specialization between same-sex and different-sex couples lead to differences in household earnings after entering parenthood. Using register data from Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden and examining first-time parents, we show that female couples have a more equal within-couple income development during the transition to parenthood than different-sex couples do. However, we find no differences in household income (including or excluding social transfers) between the two types of couples. Although a more equal task division may be preferred from an individual perspective, our results show no evidence of a “best strategy” when it comes to maximizing household income.

Studying Individuals in Same-Sex Couples using Longitudinal Administrative Data from Canadian Tax Records: Opportunities and Challenges

“…For example, studies on registered partnerships, marriages, dissolutions and fertilities among SSCs in Scandinavian countries (e.g. Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland 2 ) are among the first to utilize population register data to paint comprehensive longitudinal portraits of SSCs in partnership and family dynamics (Aldén et al, 2015;Andersson et al, 2006;Andersson & Noack, 2010;Boye & Evertsson, 2021;Kolk & Andersson, 2020;Noack et al, 2005;van der Vleuten et al, 2023). Similar register data from the Netherlands 3 has also been used to study same-sex unions (Evertsson et al, 2020;Kabátek & Perales, 2021;Kalmijn et al, 2007;Machado & Jaspers, 2023).…”

Doing Genders: Partner’s Gender and Labor Market Behavior

“…For many reasons, be they gendered socialization, gender discrimination in the labor market, or gendered power dynamics, women typically find themselves with fewer marketable resources than their male partners. New home economics ( Becker 1965 ) predicts that initial and minor differences in these resources translate into complete specialization over time, as specialization would be most beneficial to the household, although this is disputed by more recent work ( Van der Vleuten, Evertsson, and Moberg 2023 ). The effects of economies of scale and household specialization work in opposite directions for men and women.…”