Working Paper: NBER ID: w28688
Authors: Lars Kirkeben; Edwin Leuven; Magne Mogstad
Abstract: What explains the strong educational homogamy and assortativity that we observe among the college educated? We use Norwegian data to address identification and measurement challenges and find that colleges are local marriage markets that matter greatly for whom one marries, not because of the pre-determined traits of the admitted students but as a direct result of attending a particular institution at a given time. The effects of enrollment on homogamy that we uncover are sufficiently large to explain the majority of the strong educational sorting among the college educated in our data. We also examine the mechanisms behind these effects and explore implications for individual and family earnings.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: D13; I23; I24; J12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| type of postsecondary education (I23) | marriage outcomes (J12) |
| college enrollment (I23) | marriage patterns (J12) |
| same institution attendance (I23) | likelihood of marrying someone from the same institution (I23) |
| field of study (A12) | chances of marrying within that field (J12) |
| same institution attendance (I23) | field of study effect on marriage (J12) |
| enrollment (I23) | educational homogamy (I24) |
| matches within the same workplace (J29) | educational homogamy (I24) |