Marriage Versus Employment: The Impact of Dual-Thin Markets on Employment Outcomes for Single Ph.D. Workers

This paper investigates the degree to which single Ph.D.-trained workers, both domestic and foreign-born, face trade-offs between marriage and labor market opportunities. Facing dual thin labor and marriage markets, highly trained foreign-born singles may be forced to choose between metropolitan areas that offer better employment opportunities or better marriage markets. Using U.S. Census data, I find significant evidence of a “sorting” effect – the local marriage market is a location-specific consumer amenity for which highly trained singles may sacrifice real wage in equilibrium to access a more active dating environment. Locating in an MSA with 1,000 more own-ethnic college-above single men – the likely dating pool – reduces the wage of single, foreign-born, female PhDs by roughly 2 percentage points. This effect is larger for young versus older women. No such effect arises for domestic Ph.D.-trained single women who have geographically expansive marriage markets. Trade-offs between marriage market opportunities and labor market outcomes also appear to be smaller for single male PhDs. Evidence of a “distraction” effect that reduces work hours, possibly to free up time for dating, is present in some models but is less robust. JEL Classification: J1, R2