Matt Erickson wins the IPUMS CPS Research Awards with his paper in Social Forces
This study examines a possible connection between shifting gender and family norms and declining internal migration. Using data from the 1989–1998 and 2009–2018 Annual Social and Economic Supplements of the Current Population Survey, we examine whether co-breadwinner married couples have become less likely to migrate within the US relative to couples with a sole or primary breadwinner. We find a general U-shaped association between wives’ share of a married couple’s income and that couple’s likelihood of moving across state or county lines; in both time periods, couples were least likely to move when their incomes were roughly equal. However, we find this U-shaped pattern grew more pronounced in the 2010s compared with the 1990s: Over time, co-breadwinner couples became increasingly less likely to move relative to other married couples. Given that family migration decision-making has historically been gendered, this suggests dual-career married couples have become less willing to uproot women’s careers for the benefit of men’s. We argue the most likely reason for this change in behavior is a shift in norms governing the gender division of labor—in particular, a shift away from the cultural model of the male breadwinner. Based on a decomposition analysis, we estimate this change explains about one-third of the overall decline in migration among married couples ages 25–39 between the 1990s and 2010s.