Tyler Cowen on Assortative Mating and Rising Inequality
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/27/upshot/marriages-of-power-couples-reinforce-income-inequality.html
Assortative Mating and the US Marriage Market
The Economist notes –
“While fewer women are marching to the altar—the
proportion of those married before the age of 30 has fallen from 50% in 1960 to
around 20% today—the ones that do increasingly look like Leah. Highly educated,
financially independent women were once among the least likely to get hitched.
Now they are getting married at a faster rate than their lesser-educated peers,
and often to highly educated men. These unions are not only the most common,
but also the most harmonious. New data show that America’s divorce rate has
continued its plunge from its 1981 peak—from 5.3 to 3.2 divorces per 1,000
people in 2014—but this decline is largely concentrated among the
better-educated. Among college graduates who married in the early 2000s, only around
11% divorced within seven years, according to data from Justin Wolfers of the
University of Michigan.”
Related:
Interesting results from a Spanish study:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/12/18/in-love-opposites-dont-attract-and-thats-a-big-problem-for-inequality/
People selecting spouses primary from their their own 'class' (determined by income/education level) has significant effect on future generations. The above post notes:
“The tendency of people to marry someone similar,
which economists call "assortative mating," is one of the most
important factors in determining how wealth is distributed throughout a society
and whether children are born with genuinely equal opportunities to succeed.”People selecting spouses primary from their their own 'class' (determined by income/education level) has significant effect on future generations. The above post notes: