Long-Distance Relocations of One-Earner and Two-Earner Couples in Australia, Britain, Germany and Sweden: Intersections of Gender and Institutional Context

Maria Brandén, Stockholm University
Francisco Perales, University of Queensland
Philipp M. Lersch, University of Cologne

It is well-known that couples’ long-distance residential relocations are generally more responsive to men’s than women’s labour market placement and prospects. While these patterns are fairly consistent across countries, substantial variation on the width of the specific gender gaps prevails across studies. Drawing upon an extensive body of comparative evidence showing that national institutions serve as moderators of gender inequality, in this paper we shed light on unaccounted institutional features in the family migration literature to provide a more encompassing picture of the intersections between gender and family migration. To do so, we investigate the precursors of couple relocations, comparing one- and two-earner households in four developed countries. Specifically, we analyze migration intensities across couple-household work arrangements, and the individual, and couple-level factors that moderate these in Australia, Britain, Germany and Sweden, using discrete-time event-history analysis of comparable, nationally representative, panel data between 1992 and 2010.