Journal Article

Marry Your Like: Assortative Mating and Income Inequality

Greenwood, Jeremy, Santos, Cezar, Guner, Nezih, Kocharkov, Georgi

2014

نظرة عامة

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.

• الناشر: American Economic Association,American Economic Assoc
• موضوع: 1960-2005 / Assortative mating / Censuses / Contingency tables / Economic analysis / Economic theory / Economics / Education / Family income / Gini coefficient / Higher education / Homogamy / Household income / Households / Husbands / Income distribution / Income inequality / Labor force participation / Labour force / Lorenz curve / Marriage / MARRIAGE, DIVORCE, AND FEMALE LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION / Married couples / Mating / Single status / Studies / U.S.A / Wives / Womens studies