Intergenerational Economic Mobility and Assortative Mating

John Ermisch, Marco Francesconi and Thomas Siedler

No 1847, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the British Household Panel Survey to estimate the extent of intergenerational economic mobility in a framework that highlights the role played by assortative mating. We find that assortative mating plays an important role. On average about 40-50% of the covariance between parents' and own permanent family income can be attributed to the person to whom one is married. This effect is driven by strong spouse correlations in human capital, which are larger in Germany than Britain.

Keywords: intergenerational links; marriage market; occupational prestige; assortative mating (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D64 I20 J12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2005-11
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Published - published in: Economic Journal, 2006, 116 (513), 659-679

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Working Paper: Intergenerational Economic Mobility and Assortative Mating (2004)
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