Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/227338 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 13811
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We present new findings about the relationship between marriage and socioeconomic background in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Imputing socioeconomic status of family of origin from first names, we document a socioeconomic gradient for women in the probability of marriage and the socioeconomic status of husbands. This socioeconomic gradient becomes steeper over time. We investigate the degree to which it can be explained by occupational income divergence across geographic regions. Regional divergence explains about one half of the socioeconomic divergence in the probability of marriage, and almost all of the increase in marital sorting. Differences in urbanization rates and the share of foreign-born across states drive most of these differences, while other factors (the scholarization rate, the sex ratio and the share in manufacturing) play a smaller role.
Subjects: 
marriage
assortative mating
gender
intergenerational mobility
regional convergence
JEL: 
J12
J62
N31
N32
N91
N92
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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