The wealth of parents : trends over time in assortative mating based on parental wealth
Wagner, Sander (Center for Research in Economics and Statistics. CREST/ENSAE)
Boertien, Diederik (Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics)
Gørtz, Mette (Københavns Universitet)

Date:	2020
Abstract:	This article describes trends in parental wealth homogamy among union cohorts formed between 1987 and 2013 in Denmark. Using high-quality register data on the wealth of parents during the year of partnering, we show that the correlation between partners' levels of parental wealth is considerably lower compared with estimates from research on other countries. Nonetheless, parental wealth homogamy is high at the very top of the parental wealth distribution, and individuals from wealthy families are relatively unlikely to partner with individuals from families with low wealth. Parental wealth correlations among partners are higher when only parental assets rather than net wealth are examined, implying that the former might be a better measure for studying many social stratification processes. Most specifications indicate that homogamy increased in the 2000s relative to the 1990s, but trends can vary depending on methodological choices. The increasing levels of parental wealth homogamy raise concerns that over time, partnering behavior has become more consequential for wealth inequality between couples.
Grants:	European Commission 637768 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2016-BP-00121
Rights:	Aquest material està protegit per drets d'autor i/o drets afins. Podeu utilitzar aquest material en funció del que permet la legislació de drets d'autor i drets afins d'aplicació al vostre cas. Per a d'altres usos heu d'obtenir permís del(s) titular(s) de drets.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió sotmesa a revisió
Subject:	Wealth ; Inequality ; Assortative mating ; Intergenerational processes ; Partnering
Published in:	Demography, Vol. 57 Núm. 5 (2020) , p. 1809-1831, ISSN 1533-7790

DOI: 10.1007/s13524-020-00906-3

46 p, 1.2 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Social and Legal Sciences > Centre for Demographic Studies (CED-CERCA)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles