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Changes in Marital Sorting: Theory and Evidence from the US

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Listed:
  • Pierre-André Chiappori
  • Monica Costa Dias
  • Costas Meghir
  • Hanzhe Zhang

Abstract

Positive assortative matching refers to the tendency of individuals with similar characteristics to form partnerships. Measuring the extent to which assortative matching differs between two economies is challenging when the marginal distributions of the characteristic along which sorting takes place (e.g., education) change for either or both sexes. We show how the use of different measures can generate different conclusions. We provide axiomatic characterization for measures such as the odds ratio, normalized trace, and likelihood ratio, and provide a structural economic interpretation of the odds ratio. We then use our approach to consider how marital sorting by education changed between the 1950s and the 1970s cohort, for which both educational attainment and returns in the labor market changed substantially.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierre-André Chiappori & Monica Costa Dias & Costas Meghir & Hanzhe Zhang, 2025. "Changes in Marital Sorting: Theory and Evidence from the US," NBER Working Papers 33354, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33354
    Note: CH PE
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    1. Christine Schwartz & Robert Mare, 2005. "Trends in educational assortative marriage from 1940 to 2003," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 42(4), pages 621-646, November.
    2. Hanzhe Zhang, 2021. "An Investment-and-Marriage Model with Differential Fecundity: On the College Gender Gap," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(5), pages 1464-1486.
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C78 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Bargaining Theory; Matching Theory
    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics

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