Relative Income within Households, Gender Identity, and Self-Employment

While the literature has well documented effects of relative income within households on marriage satisfaction and housework distribution, whether and how male labor behavior is affected by the relative income remains unknown. Exploiting the data of Chinese General Social Survey, this study explores whether and how relative income within households impacts husband’s self-employment, we find that: (1) In couples where the wife earns less than the husband, the increase in the relative income of the wife inhibits the husband’s self-employment; whereas in couples where the wife earns more than the husband, the increase in the relative income of the wife promotes the husband’s self-employment. (2) The traditional gender concept of “outside the men lead, inside the women lead” provides a good explanation to our findings. Gender identity not only distorts female behavior, but also male behavior. (3) Men in rural areas, with low education, and short-term marriage are more sensitive to gender identity