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 0519-10227R1
DO 10.3368/jhr.57.2.0519-10227R1
A1 Holmlund, Helena
YR 2020
UL http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2020/02/03/jhr.57.2.0519-10227R1.abstract
AB This paper 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 simulate persistence under different assumptions about assortative mating and women’s earnings distribution. Using Swedish data on cohorts born 1945–1965, I show that a substantial decline in marital sorting has contributed little to lowering intergenerational persistence using rank-based measures. 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.