Assortative Mating and Education Gradients Within and Across Generations

Paul Bingley, Lorenzo Cappellari and Konstantinos Tatsiramos

No 12763, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: We study how assortative mating shapes the composition of education–outcome gradients and how these gradients relate to intergenerational transmission. Using Danish administrative data on family quartets, we decompose own gradients in long-run earnings, disposable income, assets, and wealth into jointly transmitted parental factors, parent-specific transmission, nonparental shared influences, and individual-specific heterogeneity. Earnings and income gradients mainly reflect jointly transmitted parental factors and individual-specific heterogeneity; assets and especially wealth mainly reflect parent-specific transmission. Comparing families facing different parental access to middle schools, we show that the composition of financial gradients varies by educational opportunity, while labor market gradients are largely invariant.

Keywords: assortative mating; education gradients; Intergenerational mobility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 E21 I24 J12 J24 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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