Following Along: The Gender Gap in Returns to Geographic Mobility
(previously "Households, gender and agglomeration economies")
Mylène Feuillade
2024
Presented at: EAYE, 2024; AFEPOP, 2024; ADRES Job Market Conference, 2024; RGS Doctoral Conference, 2024; PSE Labor Chair Seminar, 2024; Naples School of Economics PhD workshop, 2023; Sciences Po Seminar, 2024-2023-2022-2021
Abs PDF This paper examines how household location decisions differentially affect labor market outcomes across gender and partnership status using French administrative data. Implementing a staggered difference-in-difference design, I find that only partnered women experience income losses following moves, with earnings declining by approximately 7% in the two years post-relocation. Analysis of within-household dynamics reveals that moves typically reduce total household income and disproportionately benefit men’s careers –even in couples where women were the primary earners pre-move. These findings are not consistent with income-maximizing models of household decision-making that predict prioritization of the higher earner’s career. Instead, the results suggest that gender norms play a crucial role in household location choices, with men’s career opportunities systematically prioritized over women’s, regardless of their relative economic contributions.