Assortative mating and wealth inequality in Great Britain: evidence from the baby boomer and Gen X cohorts

We study partnership sorting by education, the profile of wealth accumulation and the implications for wealth inequality for two cohorts born in 1947-1953 and 1973-1979 using the Wealth and Assets Survey for Great Britain. Our findings suggest individuals positively sort by education relative to random matching. By the time highly educated baby boomer couples reach their mid-late 60s their reported level of median net wealth (£2.49M) is seven times that of low educated couples. Regarding future wealth transfers, we find boomer’s inheritance attitude is influenced by homeownership and inheritances received. Moreover, highly educated couples are more likely to report intending to leave an inheritance and the median level, £0.32M, is three times higher than that reported by low educated boomer couples. We document similar trends in the profile of wealth accumulation reported by Gen X couples and consistent patterns in terms of their expectations regarding future inheritance receipt. We show the disparities in wealth is attributable to the rate at which housing and pension wealth is accumulated. We underline the importance of parental education and housing tenure among both sets of parents, in addition to individuals own education, for understanding the interaction between sorting and wealth accumulation.