PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Almås, Ingvild
AU  - Kotsadam, Andreas
AU  - Moen, Espen R.
AU  - Røed, Knut
TI  - The Economics of Hypergamy
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.58.3.1219-10604R1
DP  - 2023 Jan 01
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 260--281
VI  - 58
IP  - 1
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/58/1/260.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/58/1/260.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2023 Jan 01; 58
AB  - Partner selection is a vital feature of human behavior with important consequences for individuals, families, and society. We use the term hypergamy to describe a phenomenon whereby there is a tendency for husbands to be of higher rank within the male earnings capacity distribution than their wives are within the female distribution. Such patterns are difficult to verify empirically because earnings are both a cause and an effect of the mating process. Using parental earnings rank as a predetermined measure of earnings capacity to solve the simultaneity problem, we show that hypergamy is an important feature of today’s mating patterns in one of the most gender-equal societies in the world, namely Norway. We argue that through its influence on household specialization, hypergamy may explain parts of the remaining gender wage gap.