Loughran, David S., and Julie M. Zissimopoulos. 2009. “Why Wait? The Effect of Marriage and Childbearing on the Wages of Men and Women.” Journal of Human Resources 44(2): 326–349.
We use data from the earlier and later cohorts of the NLSY to estimate the effect of marriage and childbearing on wages. Our estimates imply that marriage lowers female wages 2–4 percent in the year of marriage. Marriage also lowers the wage growth of men and women by about two and four percentage points, respectively. A first birth lowers female wages 2–3 percent, but has no effect on wage growth. Male wages are unaffected by childbearing. These findings suggest that early marriage and childbearing can lead to substantial decreases in lifetime earnings.
David S. Loughran is a senior economist and Julie M. Zissimopoulos is an economist at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, Calif. Both are also faculty members of the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the National Institute of Child Health and Development under grant 5 R03 HD 40853. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning October 2009 through September 2012 from David Loughran, RAND Corporation; Santa Monica, CA 90407; loughran@rand.org.