Abstract for:

Productivity, Wages and Marriage: The Case of Major League Baseball

Francesca  Cornaglia,  Naomi E.  Feldman,  September 2011
Paper No' CEPDP1081: | Full paper

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Keywords: Productivity; wage gap, marriage, and baseball

JEL Classification: J31; J44; J70

Is hard copy/paper copy available? YES - Paper Copy Still In Print.

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This Paper is published under the following series: CEP Discussion Papers

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Abstract:

The effect of marriage on productivity and, consequently, wages has been long debated in economics. A primary explanation for the impact of marriage on wages has been through its impact on productivity, however, there has been no direct evidence for this. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap by directly measuring the impact of marriage on productivity using a sample of professional baseball players from 1871 - 2007. Our results show that only lower ability men see an increase in productivity, though this result is sensitive to the empirical specification and weakly significant. In addition, despite the lack of any effect on productivity, high ability married players earn roughly 16 - 20 percent more than their single counterparts. We discuss possible reasons why employers may favor married men.