Decomposing patterns of college marital sorting in 118 countries: structural constraints versus assortative mating

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• dc.contributor.author Permanyer, Iñaki
• dc.contributor.author Esteve, Albert
• dc.contributor.author Garcia, Joan
• dc.date.accessioned 2024-04-11T11:05:27Z
• dc.date.available 2024-04-11T11:05:27Z
• dc.date.issued 2019
• dc.description.abstract Two broad forces shape the patterns of marital sorting by education: structural constraints and assortative mating. However, we lack specific and comparative quantification of the extent of these two forces. In this paper, we measure the specific contributions of (i) assortative mating, (ii) the level of college education and (iii) the gender gap in education on marital sorting patterns and the corresponding polarization levels between college and non-college educated couples. Unlike previous studies, we adopt a large-cross-national approach including 118 countries and more than 258 observations spanning from 1960 up to 2011. Methodologically, we develop counterfactual modelling techniques to compare observed patterns of marital sorting with expected patterns derived from alternative structural and assortative mating conditions. Our findings indicate that changes in college marital sorting and increases in polarization between college- and non-college-educated populations are overwhelmingly driven by structural constraints, namely the expansion of college education. Instead, educational assortative mating plays a limited role – accounting only for 5% of the observed changes in marriage market polarization.
• dc.description.sponsorship The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC-2014-StG-637768, EQUALIZE project), from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness “Ramón y Cajal” Research Grant Program (RYC-2013-14196) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness National R&D&I Plan GLOBFAM (RTI2018-096730-B-I00). The research conducted by Joan García-Román has received funding from the Beatriu de Pinos Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2016 BP-00279) of Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR).
• dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
• dc.identifier.citation Permanyer I, Esteve A, Garcia J. Decomposing patterns of college marital sorting in 118 countries: structural constraints versus assortative mating. Soc Sci Res. 2019 Sep;83:102313. DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2019.06.004
• dc.identifier.issn 0049-089X
• dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/59736
• dc.language.iso eng
• dc.publisher Elsevier
• dc.relation.ispartof Social science research. 2019 Sep;83:102313
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/637768
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/2PE/RTI2018-096730-B-I00
• dc.rights © Elsevier http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2019.06.004
• dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
• dc.subject.keyword Marital sorting patterns
• dc.subject.keyword Education assortative mating
• dc.subject.keyword Education expansion
• dc.subject.keyword Gender gap in education
• dc.subject.keyword College education
• dc.subject.keyword Polarization
• dc.title Decomposing patterns of college marital sorting in 118 countries: structural constraints versus assortative mating
• dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
• dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion