Sociological Explanations of Changing Income Distributions

Most explanations of rising income inequality stress technology and labor market change. Here, the author focuses on marriage behavior and women’s employment. The evidence suggests that assortative mating tends to heighten inequalities when it is accompanied by couple similarities in labor supply and earnings capacity. An equalizing effect of women’s employment will primarily emerge when lower educated women’s labor supply increases rapidly. In the second part of the article, the author adopts a dynamic perspective, focusing on intergenerational mobility. Mothers’ employment is positive for children’s life chances because it minimizes poverty risks. And if external child care is of high quality, maternal employment has no negative effects on child outcomes. The rise in female employment may therefore also help diminish the reproduction of inequalities.