Married men often earn higher incomes compared to their unmarried counterparts, prompting an investigation into whether this income disparity reflects differences in wage bargaining power. Utilizing data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) and employing a two-tier stochastic frontier analysis, our study reveals that, on average, married individuals generally possess greater wage bargaining power than their unmarried counterparts. However, this effect is more nuanced for women, while manifesting differently for men. Specifically, married men exhibit a 3.6% greater wage bargaining power than unmarried men, a phenomenon we term the 'Married Male Wage Bargaining Premium.' Our results invalidate the prevailing belief that the selection of highly educated and intelligent men for marriage explains this premium. Instead, we propose the 'Selection of High-Ability Puzzle.' The wage bargaining advantages associated with marriage may be linked to the degree of specialization within the household, stemming from the endorsement of traditional gender roles that breadwinner-men while homemaker-women.
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Wang et al. (2024) studied this question.
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