LAUSR

The paper investigates the link between stability and partners’ relative income in married and cohabiting unions in Canada. Using a dataset linking survey data to information from respondents’ annual tax records from over a period of nearly 30 years, the study explores changes over time and the role of institutional context (Quebec and the rest of Canada). The analysis does not support the hypothesis that specialization promotes stability. On the contrary, the data demonstrate that the risk of dissolution is lowest when his and her incomes are relatively similar. The U-shaped pattern holds for both marriage and cohabitation. If the couples deviate from the equality pattern, women’s greater earnings constitute a more destabilizing factor than men’s greater earnings, in particular for married couples in the English provinces. The observed U-shaped link between women’s relative income and conjugal instability has not changed over the period of 30 years. The question of whether and how the differences in partners’ income affect the risk of divorce has been capturing attention for a long time. Yet, despite the plethora of empirical studies, a firm conclusion about the role of relative income remains elusive. Some studies showed that wives’ greater earnings are linked to marital instability and lower marital quality and satisfaction (Jalovaara 2013). Others found a U-shaped or inverted U-shaped curve between partners’ relative income and divorce (Nock 2001; Rogers 2004). Existing studies do not also provide an unambiguous answer to the question of whether partners’ relative earnings play a similar role in marriage and cohabitation or whether the role of relative income changed over