Changing educational homogamy: Shifting preferences or evolving educational distribution?

We decompose the effects of various causes of changing mating patterns in the US and four European countries by using a micro-based model developed in this paper, and a statistical model. Our micro-based model takes into account both singles by choice and singles by chance, while the statistical model disregards singles. Out of the driving forces of educational assortative mating, we focus on the mating preferences. Changes in this factor point to the widening of the social gap between different educational groups in the 2000s since those made individuals increasingly more inclined to match with others of similar educational traits over the decade covering the Great Recession in all five countries. Ourfinding is robust to accounting for single people and explained by the simultaneous rise of the returns to education on labor markets and marriage markets.

NASZODI Anna;  MENDONCA Francisco; 

2024-10-17

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

JRC125090

2054-0892 (online),   

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-demographic-economics/article/changing-educational-homogamy-shifting-preferences-or-evolving-educational-distribution/0E3D73764B3CAE362DEA989EB096DA91,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC125090,   

10.1017/dem.2022.21 (online),