%0 Journal Article %A Ariel J. Binder %A David Lam %T Is There a Male-Breadwinner Norm? The Hazards of Inferring Preferences from Marriage Market Outcomes %D 2022 %R 10.3368/jhr.58.2.0320-10803R1 %J Journal of Human Resources %P 1885-1914 %V 57 %N 6 %X We find that distributions of spousal earnings gaps provide no identifying information for the male-breadwinner norm, nor such a norm’s consequences for gender inequality. First, we show that simple marital matching models— without norm-related assumptions—closely replicate U.S. distributions of wife-husband earnings gaps. Second, we show that the discontinuity in this distribution as wives start to outearn husbands reflects not breadwinner norms, but rather a point mass of equal-earning couples. We conclude by arguing that the point mass may also threaten other tests of the male breadwinner hypothesis and proposing several robustness checks that future research should utilize. %U https://jhr.uwpress.org/content/wpjhr/57/6/1885.full.pdf