Essays in Labor Economics

This paper studies the increase in joint retirement among dual earner households
since 1975 and the factors that account for this increase. I use the 1982-2014 panel
of Health and Retirement Study to document at 24 percentage point increase in the
joint retirement rate among dual earner households from 1975 to 2014. This increase
in the joint retirement rate coincides with various economic and demographic changes
in the United States. I focus on the increase in the share of college educated women,
the increase in marital sorting by education and the decline in age differences between
spouses as potential drivers of the increase in joint retirement.