Couples' Strategies after Job Loss in West Germany and the United States - The Added Worker Effect and Linked Life Courses

Abstract In couple households, income losses due to men's displacements may be offset by an increase in women's earnings, the so called "Added Worker Effect" (AWE). I argue that previous research largely neglected the variation of the AWE due to intra-household characteristics. Following the idea of "linked life courses", intra-household processes have an influence on the AWE and that this influence is structured by gender norms. I test the implications of this perspective using panel data from West Germany (GSOEP) and the United States (PSID). Results support my expectation that male breadwinner couples have lower AWE than modern and semi-modernized couples. JEL Classification: Z13, D13, J64