RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 How Much Does Marital Sorting Contribute to Intergenerational Socioeconomic Persistence?
JF Journal of Human Resources
JO J Hum Resour
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 372
OP 399
DO 10.3368/jhr.57.2.0519-10227R1
VO 57
IS 2
A1 Holmlund, Helena
YR 2022
UL http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/57/2/372.abstract
AB This work investigates to what extent assortative mating contributes to intergenerational earnings persistence. I use an errors-in-variables model to demonstrate how pooling of partners’ “potential” earnings affects intergenerational earnings persistence, and I simulate persistence under different assumptions about assortative mating and women’s earnings distribution. Using Swedish data on cohorts born 1945–1965 and rank-based measures, I show that a substantial decline in marital sorting has contributed little to lowering intergenerational persistence. The intergenerational elasticity (IGE) is, however, more sensitive to sorting, in particular for women. Overall, variations in marital sorting must be large to affect intergenerational mobility to a great extent. Instead, the relative earnings distributions of men and women, in combination with sorting, are important for intergenerational persistence.