Migration and career attainment of power couples: the roles of city size and human capital composition. (15th March 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Simon, Curtis J
• Is Part Of: Journal of economic geography. Volume 19:Number 2(2019)
• Page Start: 505
• Page End: 534
• Publication Date: 2018-03-15
• Subjects: Migration -- career outcomes -- city size -- human capital -- married couples; R23 -- J61 -- R12; Economic geography -- Periodicals; 330.9
• DOI: 10.1093/jeg/lby009
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1468-2702

Abstract

Abstract: Costa and Kahn (2000, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115: 1287–1315) documented that power couples tended to be located in large cities, postulating a need to solve a co-location problem peculiar to dual-career, highly educated spouses. Using data from the 2008 to 2014 American Community Surveys, I find that young full-power couples are more likely to move to larger, better-educated cities relative to couples in which just the husband has a college degree and wife-only power couples more likely than couples in which neither spouse has a college degree. I also present new evidence that larger, better-educated cities offer superior joint husband-and-wife career outcomes as measured by occupational attainment for wives and husbands with college degrees.