What does economic homogamy mean? An application to West Germany
Journal article: Economic homogamy is a well-documented fact in demography. The preferred interpretation of this phenomenon is a preference for “entre-soi,” but the characteristics of the spouses in a household condition not only their satisfaction in being together, but also their decisions on the division of labor. In this article, we present an approach that encompasses both the process of couple formation, the sharing of resources within the household, and the complementarity of spouses in couple activities. Studying German data from 2013 to 2019, we show that wage homogamy is concentrated at the top of the distribution, that education has a very important weight in spousal complementarities, and that wages and education play a similar role in household income-sharing arrangements.
Author(s)
Marion Goussé, Nicolas Jacquemet, Jean-Marc Robin
Journal
- Revue Economique
Date of publication
- 2024