  How do matching of spouses and the nature of work jointly shape the
distribution of COVID-19 health risks? To address this question, I study the
association between the incidence of COVID-19 and the degree of spousal sorting
into occupations that differ by contact intensity at the workplace. The
mechanism, that I explore, implies that the higher degree of positive spousal
sorting mitigates intra-household contagion and this translates into a smaller
number of individuals exposed to COVID-19 risk. Using the U.S. data at the
state level, I argue that spousal sorting is an important factor for
understanding the disparities in the prevalence of COVID-19 during the early
stages of the pandemic. First, I document that it creates about two-thirds of
the U.S. dual-earner couples that are exposed to higher COVID-19 health risk
due to within-household transmission. Moreover, I uncover substantial
heterogeneity in the degree of spousal sorting by state. Next, for the first
week of April 2020, I estimate that a one standard deviation increase in the
measure of spousal sorting is associated with a 30% reduction in the total
number of cases per 100000 inhabitants and a 39.3% decline in the total number
of deaths per 100000 inhabitants. Furthermore, I find substantial temporal
heterogeneity as the coefficients decline in magnitude over time. My results
speak to the importance of policies that allow mitigating intra-household
contagion.
