Marry Your Like: Assortative Mating and Income Inequality

Jeremy Greenwood, Nezih Guner, Georgi Kocharkov and Cezar Santos

No 7895, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: married female labor supply; assortative mating; inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 J11 J12 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2014-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (250)

Published - published in: American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings, 2014, 104(5), 348-353

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Related works:
Working Paper: Marry Your Like: Assortative Mating and Income Inequality (2015)
Working Paper: Marry Your Like: Assortative Mating and Income Inequality (2015)
Working Paper: Marry Your Like: Assortative Mating and Income Inequality (2015)
Journal Article: Marry Your Like: Assortative Mating and Income Inequality (2014)
Working Paper: Marry Your Like: Assortative Mating and Income Inequality (2014)
Working Paper: Marry Your Like: Assortative Mating and Income Inequality (2014)
Working Paper: Marry Your Like: Assortative Mating and Income Inequality (2014)
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