We estimate household equivalence scales, i.e. the needs of additional adults and children relative to a single adult, using income satisfaction data from the German Socio-Economic Panel. We extend previous studies applying this approach by taking reference income into account. This allows separating needs-based from reference effects in the determination of income satisfaction. We show that this adjustment helps to overcome a bias causing an overestimation of adults' and an underestimation of children's needs-based equivalence weights. Our results indicate that controlling for income comparisons substantially increases children's equivalence weight relative to that of adults.JEL Codes: I32, J13, D31

This paper analyses the relationship between a husband’s job loss and marital stability, focusing on involuntary employment terminations due to plant closures or dismissals. Using discrete survival analysis techniques on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we find plant closures and dismissals to be associated with a 54 and 74% higher risk of marital dissolution respectively, though the strength of association varies significantly by how long ago the change in employment status occurred. We extend the previous literature by considering heterogeneity in the relationship depending on whether new employment was found. Our analysis shows that the dissolution risk remains elevated even in couples where the husband has taken up a new position. Surprisingly, the relative risk of dissolution following the first period in a new job after a job loss is about the same as the relative risk of dissolution following the first period without employment. The relationship between finding a new job and marital dissolution appears to be mediated by changes in working hours as well as wages. In two extensions, we also consider the role of the wife’s employment status in moderating the relationship and show that a wife’s job loss is not associated with a similar increase in the probability of divorce as a husband’s.

Using bivariate random-effects probit estimation on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel we show that women respond to their partners’ unemployment with an increase in labor market participation, which also leads to an increase in their employment probability. Our analysis considers within and between effects separately, revealing differences in the relationships between women’s labor market statuses and their partners’ unemployment in the previous period (within effect) and their partners’ overall probability of being unemployed (between effect). Furthermore, we contribute to the literature by demonstrating that a partner’s employment in a low-paid job has an effect on women’s labor market choices and outcomes similar to that of his unemployment.

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This paper analyzes how motherhood and labor market status interact in their relationship to women’s affective well-being using Day Reconstruction Method data from the United Kingdom Time Use Survey 2014–2015. The dataset contains information on how much time respondents spent on their various daily activities as well as how much they enjoyed each episode. This information is aggregated into a measure of an individual’s affective well-being on a given day by calculating the mean of the reported enjoyments weighted by the duration of the respective episode. Results indicate a positive and significant correlation between motherhood and affective well-being. However, this relationship decreases in magnitude and even becomes insignificant in some specifications when controlling for labor market status. This could indicate that an increase in the likelihood of being in a labor market status associated with higher affective well-being mediates the positive relationship between motherhood and affective well-being. Women working part-time, self-employed women, homemakers and women on maternity leave are shown to have higher affective well-being than full-time employees. Furthermore, the time spent on and enjoyment experienced in employment related activities appears to be a key driver of many results in this study. Contrasting results in specifications using a measure of life satisfaction highlight the importance of considering affective as well as cognitive well-being.