How Much Does Marital Sorting Contribute to Intergenerational Socioeconomic Persistence?

Holmlund, Helena

doi:10.3368/jhr.57.2.0519-10227r1

Cited by 13 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…We find more mixed evidence that patterns of assortative mating changed between the two cohorts. Given Holmlund's (2019) recent finding that a large change in assortative mating can have only a small impact on persistence, we interpret this mixed evidence as suggestive of a limited role for assortative mating in explaining the increase in persistence.…”

Section: Marriagementioning

confidence: 66%

“…The final two columns of Table 8 explore whether changes in assortative mating can explain the increase in persistence. We follow Holmlund (2019) and measure assortative mating by regressing our total family income measure, either the rank in the total family income distribution or log total family income, on the corresponding measure using only the child's own income. Column 4 shows the results using only married couples.…”

Section: Marriagementioning

confidence: 99%

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The Decline in Intergenerational Mobility After 1980

Davis¹,

Mazumder²

2020

Preprint

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We demonstrate that relative intergenerational mobility declined sharply for cohorts born in the early 1960s compared to those born around 1950. The former entered the labor market largely after the large rise in inequality that occurred around 1980 while the latter entered the labor market well before this inflection point. We show that the rank-rank slope rose from 0.24 to 0.36 and the IGE increased from 0.21 to 0.50. We find that both the increase in the returns to schooling and the gradient in the likelihood of marriage by parent income can explain some of the increase in persistence. We also find direct evidence of a decline in absolute intergenerational mobility using intergenerational data, consistent with the bounds-based approach of Chetty et al. (2017).

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Section: Marriagementioning

confidence: 66%

Section: Marriagementioning

confidence: 99%

The Decline in Intergenerational Mobility After 1980

Davis¹,

Mazumder²

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For all other curves, there is a clear trend of increasing persistence over time. These patterns are not accounted for by trends in assortative mating, because such sorting has decreased or been largely stable (Henz & Jonsson, 2003;Holmlund, 2020).…”

Section: Taking Stockmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Household income also makes women and men look more similar and may therefore seem like a tempting way to abstract from sex. At the same time, this brings in mechanisms of partner selection and family formation that can make estimates harder to interpret (Chadwick & Solon, 2002;Choi et al, 2020;Holmlund, 2020). Several studies also use family income in the parent generation and offspring earnings, often guided by necessity as this is the only option in common survey datasets (Blanden, Goodman, Gregg, & Machin, 2004;Zimmerman, 1992).…”

Section: Income Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Patterns and Trends in Income Mobility through Multiverse Analysis

Engzell¹,

Mood²

2021

Preprint

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Rising inequalities in rich countries have led to concerns that the economic ladder is getting harder to climb. It is well established that intergenerational income mobility is lower in countries with high inequality, but research on trends in mobility finds conflicting results. Motivated by this uncertainty, we ask: how important are choices of specification for levels and trends in intergenerational income associations? We use Swedish data on cohorts born 1958–1977 and their parents. Varying how, when and for whom income is measured, we estimate 1,658,880 different associations (82,944 specifications across 20 cohorts). Our results reveal that model choice is an underrecognized source of variation in intergenerational mobility research. The most consistent contributor to trends is the advancement of women in the labor market, which leads to increased persistence in women’s earnings and the family income of both men and women. Depending on specification, it is possible to conclude that income mobility is increasing, decreasing, or remaining flat. Despite variability, our results are broadly consistent with the received view that the level of mobility in Sweden is high in a comparative perspective.

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“…This paper relates to a growing literature in economics on the relationship between assortative mating and intergenerational transmission. One strand of the literature focuses on educational sorting in the offspring generation, taking the view that non-random sorting among offspring might affect measures of intergenerational mobility, slowing down regression to the mean in socioeconomic status between parents and children (e.g., Chadwick and Solon, 2002;Ermisch et al, 2006;Güell et al, 2015;Holmlund, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parental assortative mating and the intergenerational transmission of human capital

2022

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We study the contribution of parental similarity in schooling levels to the intergenerational transmission of educational attainment. We develop an empirical model for educational correlations within the family in which parental sorting can translate into intergenerational transmission, or transmission can originate from each parent independently. Estimating the model using educational attainment from Danish population-based administrative data for over 400,000 families, we find that about 75 percent of the intergenerational correlation in education is driven by the joint contribution of the parents. We also document a sizeable secular decline of parental assortative mating in education, with a corresponding fall in joint intergenerational transmission from both parents; a fall compensated by an increase in parent-specific intergenerational transmission, leaving total intergenerational persistence unchanged. The mechanisms of intergenerational transmission have changed, with an increased importance of one-to-one parent-child relationships.

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How Much Does Marital Sorting Contribute to Intergenerational Socioeconomic Persistence?

Cited by 13 publications

References 23 publications

The Decline in Intergenerational Mobility After 1980

The Decline in Intergenerational Mobility After 1980

Understanding Patterns and Trends in Income Mobility through Multiverse Analysis

Parental assortative mating and the intergenerational transmission of human capital

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