A new dimension of assortative mating: education in childhood neighborhoods

Vinicius de Souza Maia , Lund University
Martin Dribe, Lund University

Assortative mating has long been important in demography and other social sciences. We know that partner selection is determined by factors related to exposure to different potential partners in the marriage market, socioeconomic conditions, cultural norms, and prevailing family systems. In this paper we add another dimension to this analysis by incorporating the educational level of the neighborhood of upbringing. In addition to well-known factors such as age and individual education, neighborhood conditions in childhood could be an important trait in the assortative mating process. We study assortative mating in first unions with a special focus on the neighborhood of upbringing. We use full-count register data for Sweden, 1982–2022, with detailed individual-level information on education and other variables as well as detailed longitudinal geographic information. We measure neighborhood conditions by the share of adults with higher education in the neighborhood of upbringing, and estimate conditional logit models with this neighborhood variable as well as own education, age, country of birth, income and presence of children. Neighborhoods are measured at the DeSO level, which is a detailed statistical area unit developed by Statistics Sweden. Preliminary findings show that neighborhood of upbringing has a substantial association with homogamy, as well as evidence of neighborhood educational hypergamy.

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 Presented in Session 57. Flash Session Assortive Mating, Education and Social Class