scholarly journals Assortative Mating, Income Inequality, and Place

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Avril Macfarlane
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Household Income ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Educational Assortative Mating ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
The Relationship

<p>There is a growing concern internationally about levels of income inequality, and the negative effect this has on the functioning of societies both in terms of productivity and social harmony. An unexpected contributor to inequality is assortative mating - the phenomenon of “like marrying like”. Educational attainment is highly correlated with income; when two highly educated people partner and form a household they are more likely to appear at the top of the household income distribution, while couples with only primary or incomplete secondary education appear at the bottom. Therefore the greater the propensity to mate assortatively the more unequal the distribution of household income becomes.   I ask two questions of the relationship between educational assortative mating and household income inequality. Firstly, how do countries (in Europe) differ in their degree of educational assortative mating? Secondly, what is the evidence that such differences are reflected in indicators of household income inequality?   My study differs from the prevailing approaches to this question by taking a geographical approach. Instead of comparing a single country over time and monitoring the correspondence between assortative mating and income inequality, I compare a wide range of countries, using a uniform instrument, at one point in time. In order to do so I draw on the unit records of 29 countries from the European Social Survey administered in 2012.   From these unit record data I have been able to identify two important patterns. Firstly, there is a clear presence of educational assortative mating in each country. However, the degree differs and it does so primarily as a reflection of the overall level of education in the country. Rising levels of education lower the returns for education, in turn making assortative mating comparatively less attractive. As a result, the level of assortative mating, compared to what would be expected under random conditions, is lower in highly educated nations. The lowered level of assortative mating in highly educated nations reduces the barriers to social mobility through marriage for those without university educations. Consequently, household income inequality is seen to be intrinsically related to assortative mating, although the outcomes can be mitigated by redistribution policies.</p>

scholarly journals Assortative Mating, Income Inequality, and Place

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Avril Macfarlane
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Household Income ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Educational Assortative Mating ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
The Relationship

<p>There is a growing concern internationally about levels of income inequality, and the negative effect this has on the functioning of societies both in terms of productivity and social harmony. An unexpected contributor to inequality is assortative mating - the phenomenon of “like marrying like”. Educational attainment is highly correlated with income; when two highly educated people partner and form a household they are more likely to appear at the top of the household income distribution, while couples with only primary or incomplete secondary education appear at the bottom. Therefore the greater the propensity to mate assortatively the more unequal the distribution of household income becomes.   I ask two questions of the relationship between educational assortative mating and household income inequality. Firstly, how do countries (in Europe) differ in their degree of educational assortative mating? Secondly, what is the evidence that such differences are reflected in indicators of household income inequality?   My study differs from the prevailing approaches to this question by taking a geographical approach. Instead of comparing a single country over time and monitoring the correspondence between assortative mating and income inequality, I compare a wide range of countries, using a uniform instrument, at one point in time. In order to do so I draw on the unit records of 29 countries from the European Social Survey administered in 2012.   From these unit record data I have been able to identify two important patterns. Firstly, there is a clear presence of educational assortative mating in each country. However, the degree differs and it does so primarily as a reflection of the overall level of education in the country. Rising levels of education lower the returns for education, in turn making assortative mating comparatively less attractive. As a result, the level of assortative mating, compared to what would be expected under random conditions, is lower in highly educated nations. The lowered level of assortative mating in highly educated nations reduces the barriers to social mobility through marriage for those without university educations. Consequently, household income inequality is seen to be intrinsically related to assortative mating, although the outcomes can be mitigated by redistribution policies.</p>

scholarly journals Educational Assortative Mating and Household Income Inequality

2019 ◽  
Vol 127 (6) ◽  
pp. 2795-2835 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lasse Eika ◽  
Magne Mogstad ◽  
Basit Zafar
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Household Income ◽  
Educational Assortative Mating

scholarly journals Heterogeneous Fertility Behavior among Highly Educated Women in Japan: The Effect of Educational Assortative Mating on First and Second Childbirth Using Diagonal Reference Model

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fumiya Uchikoshi
Keyword(s):  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Event History Analysis ◽  
Marital Fertility ◽  
Reference Model ◽  
Methodological Problem ◽  
Second Child ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
History Analysis ◽  
Educational Assortative Mating ◽  
The Relationship

Prior studies have argued that changes in nuptial behavior are the main contributors to the decline in fertility in Japan and educational gradients in fertility are negligible. Recently, however, changes in marital fertility have also contributed to the decline in fertility. While the influence of women's educational attainment on fertility has only been paid attention, since fertility involves two partners and so it is also possible to focus on the influence of the male partner’s social status. Moreover, not only can each partner’s socioeconomic status, but also their combining as a couple (assortative mating), influence fertility. In spite of theoretical significance to examine the relationship between educational assortative mating and fertility, scholars face a methodological problem in examining an interaction of two variables. In this study, applying diagonal reference model to event history analysis, I estimated the effect of educational assortative mating on having first and second childbirth in Japan. A series of analysis revealed that homogamy couples of the high educated are less likely to have their second child than other types of educational coupling.

Poor Little Rich Kids? The Role of Nature versus Nurture in Wealth and Other Economic Outcomes and Behaviours

2019 ◽  
Vol 87 (4) ◽  
pp. 1683-1725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra E Black ◽  
Paul J Devereux ◽  
Petter Lundborg ◽  
Kaveh Majlesi
Keyword(s):  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Nature Versus Nurture ◽  
Biological Parents ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Birth Factors ◽  
Nature And Nurture ◽  
Parental Wealth ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Wealth is highly correlated between parents and their children; however, little is known about the extent to which these relationships are genetic or determined by environmental factors. We use administrative data on the net wealth of a large sample of Swedish adoptees merged with similar information for their biological and adoptive parents. Comparing the relationship between the wealth of adopted and biological parents and that of the adopted child, we find that, even prior to any inheritance, there is a substantial role for environment and a much smaller role for pre-birth factors and we find little evidence that nature/nurture interactions are important. When bequests are taken into account, the role of adoptive parental wealth becomes much stronger. Our findings suggest that wealth transmission is not primarily because children from wealthier families are inherently more talented or more able but that, even in relatively egalitarian Sweden, wealth begets wealth. We further build on the existing literature by providing a more comprehensive view of the role of nature and nurture on intergenerational mobility, looking at a wide range of different outcomes using a common sample and method. We find that environmental influences are relatively more important for wealth-related variables such as savings and investment decisions than for human capital. We conclude by studying consumption as an overall measure of welfare and find that, like wealth, it is more determined by environment than by biology.

scholarly journals Marry Your Like: Assortative Mating and Income Inequality

2014 ◽  
Vol 104 (5) ◽  
pp. 348-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Greenwood ◽  
Nezih Guner ◽  
Georgi Kocharkov ◽  
Cezar Santos
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Household Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
Census Bureau ◽  
United States Census ◽  
United States Census Bureau ◽  
Positive Assortative Mating ◽  
High Level ◽  
Married Female

Has there been an increase in positive assortative mating? Does assortative mating contribute to household income inequality? Data from the United States Census Bureau suggests there has been a rise in assortative mating. Additionally, assortative mating affects household income inequality. In particular, if matching in 2005 between husbands and wives had been random, instead of the pattern observed in the data, then the Gini coefficient would have fallen from the observed 0.43 to 0.34, so that income inequality would be smaller. Thus, assortative mating is important for income inequality. The high level of married female labor-force participation in 2005 is important for this result.

scholarly journals Growth and Income Inequality: A Comparative Analysis

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayla Ogus Binatli
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Growth Changes ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Over Time

This paper investigates whether the relationship between income inequality and growth changes over time. Two time periods, covering 1970–1985 and 1985–1999, are analyzed and compared. A statistically significant relationship between inequality and growth in either time period fails to emerge. However, there are indications that effect of inequality on growth may be different in the nineties when compared to the seventies. In the literature, a consistent negative effect of inequality on growth is documented although the significance of the effect is open to debate. This paper also finds a negative effect of income inequality on growth in the seventies but, although statistically insignificant, a consistently positive effect in the nineties.

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