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Educational Homogamy and Gender-Specific Earnings: Sweden, 1990–2009

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  • Martin Dribe
  • Paul Nystedt

Abstract

Several studies have shown strong educational homogamy in most Western societies, although the trends over time differ across countries. In this article, we study the connection between educational assortative mating and gender-specific earnings in a sample containing the entire Swedish population born 1960–1974; we follow this sample from 1990 to 2009. Our empirical strategy exploits a longitudinal design, using distributed fixed-effects models capturing the impact of partner education on postmarital earnings, relating it to the income development before union formation. We find that being partnered with someone with more education (hypergamy) is associated with higher earnings, while partnering someone with less education (hypogamy) is associated with lower earnings. However, most of these differences in earnings emerge prior to the time of marriage, implying that the effect is explained by marital selection processes rather than by partner education affecting earnings. The exception is hypogamy among the highly educated, for which there are strong indications that in comparison with homogamy and hypergamy, earnings grow slower after union formation. Copyright Population Association of America 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Dribe & Paul Nystedt, 2013. "Educational Homogamy and Gender-Specific Earnings: Sweden, 1990–2009," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(4), pages 1197-1216, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:50:y:2013:i:4:p:1197-1216
    DOI: 10.1007/s13524-012-0188-7
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    2. Jonas Wood & Leen Marynissen & Jessica Nisén & Peter Fallesen & Karel Neels & Alessandra Trimarchi & Lars Dommermuth & Ruben Van Gaalen & Martin Kolk & Pekka Martikainen, 2021. "Regional variation in women’s education-fertility nexus in Northern and Western Europe," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2021-021, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    3. Dávid Erát, 2021. "Educational assortative mating and the decline of hypergamy in 27 European countries: An examination of trends through cohorts," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 44(7), pages 157-188.
    4. Amit Kaplan & Anat Herbst-Debby, 2015. "Stratified patterns of divorce," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(34), pages 949-982.
    5. Abigail Weitzman & Dalton Conley, 2014. "From Assortative to Ashortative Coupling: Men's Height, Height Heterogamy, and Relationship Dynamics in the United States," NBER Working Papers 20402, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Jan Bavel & Martin Klesment, 2017. "Educational Pairings, Motherhood, and Women’s Relative Earnings in Europe," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(6), pages 2331-2349, December.
    7. Angela Carollo & Anna Oksuzyan & Sven Drefahl & Carlo Giovanni Camarda & Linda Juel Ahrenfeldt & Kaare Christensen & Alyson van Raalte, 2019. "Is the age difference between partners related to women's earnings?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 41(15), pages 425-460.
    8. Nicholas A. Jolly, 2019. "Female Earnings and the Returns to Spousal Education Over Time," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 691-709, December.

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