Income inequality and educational assortative mating: Evidence from the Luxembourg Income Study

• I examine assortative mating by education in 25 high-income countries.
• Differential barriers to union-formation between strata characterize partnering patterns.
• There is a negative association between returns to education and educational intermarriage.
• Female educational attainment/employment is not associated with assortative mating.
• Within-country findings are far less clear.

Though extensive research has explored the prevalence of educational assortative mating, what causes its variation across countries and over time is not well understood. Using data from the Luxembourg Income Study Database, I investigate the hypothesis that assortative mating by income is influenced by income inequality between educational strata. I find that in countries with greater returns to education, the odds of any sort of union that crosses educational boundaries is substantially reduced. However, I do not find substantial evidence of an effect of changes in returns to education on marital sorting within countries. Educational and labor market parity between males and females appear to be negatively related to marital sorting.