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Educational Homogamy and Assortative Mating Have Not Increased

Author Info

Listed author(s):
  • Gihleb, Rania

    ()

    (University of Pittsburgh)

  • Lang, Kevin

    ()

    (Boston University)

Abstract

Some economists have argued that assortative mating between men and women has increased over the last several decades, thereby contributing to increased family income inequality. Sociologists have argued that educational homogamy has increased. We clarify the relation between the two and, using both the Current Population Surveys and the decennial Censuses/American Community Survey, show that neither is correct. The former is based on the use of inappropriate statistical techniques. Both are sensitive to how educational categories are chosen. We also find no evidence that the correlation between spouses' potential earnings has changed dramatically.

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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 10413.

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Length: 36 pages
Date of creation: Dec 2016
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10413
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Keywords: assortative mating;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure

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Cited by:

  1. Davis, Jonathan & Mazumder, Bhashkar, 2017. "The Decline in Intergenerational Mobility After 1980," Working Paper Series WP-2017-5, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

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