Demographic explanations for the rise in household income inequality include increased educational assortative mating and changes in the division of paid labour within families. Building on this research, the current study focuses on the connected nature of these two inequality-producing mechanisms, while at the same time bridging the divide with the economic literature on the role of income differentiation. Drawing on the 2004–2008 European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, we consider variation across Europe in the disequalising effect of educational assortative mating and relate these patterns to the general characteristics of welfare state regimes, focusing on the degree of gender equality and income differentiation. First, we document large educational differentials in men’s and women’s income in Eastern Europe, and smaller differentials in Anglo-Saxon, Continental and, especially, Northern Europe. Next, we find that this variation in gender equality and income differentiation parallels variation in the potential contribution of educational assortative mating to educational differentiation in household income. While all countries display larger educational differentials in household income under the scenario of 100% educational homogamy, the biggest differences are found in Eastern Europe, and the smallest differences in the Nordic countries. These results suggest that educational assortative mating is less disequalising in countries with more gender equality and support for equal opportunities.
AlbrechtDEAlbrechtCM (2007) Income inequality: The implications of economic structure and social conditions. Sociological Spectrum27(2): 165–181.
2.
BjörklundA (1992) Rising female labour force participation and the distribution of family income: The Swedish experience. Acta Sociologica35(4): 299–309.
3.
BlauFKahnL (2007) Changes in the labor supply behavior of married women: 1980–2000. Journal of Labor Economics25(3): 393–438.
4.
BlossfeldH-PBuchholzS (2009) Increasing resource inequality among families in modern societies: The mechanisms of growing educational homogamy, changes in the division of work in the family and the decline of the male breadwinner model. Journal of Comparative Family Studies40(4): 603–616.
5.
BoertienDPermanyerI (2017) Educational assortative mating as a determinant of changing household income inequality: A 22-country study. LIS Working Paper 719. Available at: http://www.lisdatacenter.org/wps/liswps/719.pdf(accessed 27 April 2018).
6.
BrandoliniASmeedingTM (2008) Inequality: International evidence. In: DurlaufSBlumeL (eds) The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. 2nd edition. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
7.
BreenRAndersenSH (2012) Educational assortative mating and income inequality in Denmark. Demography49(3): 867–887.
8.
BreenRSalazarL (2010) Has increased women’s educational attainment led to greater earnings inequality in the United Kingdom? A multivariate decomposition analysis. European Sociological Review26(2): 143–157.
9.
BreenRSalazarL (2011) Educational assortative mating and earnings inequality in the United States. American Journal of Sociology117(3): 808–843.
10.
BurtlessG (1999) Effects of growing wage disparities and changing family composition on the U.S. income distribution. European Economic Review43(4–6): 853–865.
11.
CancianMReedD (1998) Assessing the effects of wives’ earnings on family income inequality. The Review of Economics and Statistics80(1): 73–79.
12.
CancianMReedD (1999) The impact of wives’ earnings on income inequality: Issues and estimates. Demography36(2): 173–184.
13.
CancianMSchoeniRF (1998) Wives’ earnings and the level and distribution of married couples’ earnings in developed countries. Journal of Income Distribution8(1): 45–61.
14.
CookeLP (2011) Gender–Class Equality in Political Economies. New York: Routledge.
15.
DanzigerD (1980) Do working wives increase family income inequality?The Journal of Human Resources15(3): 444–451.
16.
Del BocaDPasquaS (2003) Employment patterns of husbands and wives and family income distribution in Italy (1977–98). The Review of Income and Wealth49(2): 221–245.
17.
EeckhautMCWVan de PutteBGerrisJRM, et al. (2013) Analysing the effect of educational differences between partners: A methodological/theoretical comparison. European Sociological Review29(1): 60–73.
18.
EikaLMogstadMZafarB (2018) Educational assortative mating and household income inequality. Journal of Political Economy. Epub ahead of print 11 December 2018. DOI:10.1086/702018.
19.
ErhelCGuergoat-LarivièreM (2013) Labor market regimes, family policies, and women’s behavior in the EU. Feminist Economics19(4): 76–109.
20.
European Commission (2008) EU-SILC User Database Description. Version 2006 -1 from 01-03-08. Luxembourg: European Commission.
21.
Eurostat (2009) EUSILC XUDB 2004–2008. Version of August 2009. Luxembourg: European Commission.
Esping-AndersenG (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.
24.
Esping-AndersenG (1999) Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
25.
Esping-AndersenG (2007) Sociological explanations of changing income distributions. American Behavioral Scientist50(5): 639–658.
26.
EsteveASchwartzCRVan BavelJ, et al. (2016) The end of hypergamy: Global trends and implications. Population and Development Review42(4): 615–625.
27.
FernándezRGunerNKnowlesJ (2005) Love and money: A theoretical and empirical analysis of household sorting and inequality. The Quarterly Journal of Economics120(1): 273–344.
28.
Gonalons-PonsPSchwartzCR (2017) Trends in economic homogamy: Changes in assortative mating or the division of labor in marriage?Demography54(3): 985–1005.
29.
GornickJC (2004) Women’s economic outcomes, gender inequality and public policy: Findings from the Luxemburg Income Study. Socio-Economic Review2(2): 213–238.
30.
GornickJCMeyersM (2003) Families That Work: Policies for Reconciling Parenthood and Employment. New York: Russell Sage.
31.
GottschalkPDanzigerS (2005) Inequality of wage rates, earnings and family income in the United States, 1975–2002. The Review of Income and Wealth51(2): 231–254.
32.
GottschalkPSmeedingTM (1997) Cross-national comparisons of earnings and income inequality. Journal of Economic Literature35(2): 633–687.
33.
GreenwoodJGunerNKocharkovG, et al. (2014) Marry your like: Assortative mating and income inequality. The American Economic Review104(5): 348–353.
34.
HarknessSMachinSWaldfogelJ (1997) Evaluating the pin money hypothesis: The relationship between women’s labor market activity, family income and poverty in Britain. Journal of Population Economics10(2): 137–158.
35.
HendrickxJde GraafNDLammersJ, et al. (1993) Models for status inconsistency and mobility: A comparison of the approaches by Hope and Sobel with the mainstream square additive model. Quality & Quantity27(4): 335–352.
36.
Herzberg-DrukerEStierH (2014) Educational assortative mating, women’s labor force participation, and inequality in Israel. Presented at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, Boston, Massachusetts, 1–3 May 2014. Available at: https://paa2014.princeton.edu/papers/140585 (accessed 10 May 2014).
37.
HeynsB (2005) Emerging inequalities in Central and Eastern Europe. Annual Review of Sociology31(1): 163–197.
38.
HryshkoDJuhnCMcCueK (2017) Trends in earnings inequality and earnings instability among U.S. couples: How important is assortative matching?Labour Economics48: 168–182.
39.
HyslopDR (2001) Rising U.S. earnings inequality and family labor supply: The covariance structure of intrafamily earnings. The American Economic Review91(4): 755–777.
40.
KalmijnM (1998) Intermarriage and homogamy: Causes, patterns, trends. Annual Review of Sociology24: 395–421.
41.
KarolyLABurtlessG (1995) Demographic change, rising earnings inequality, and the distribution of personal well-being, 1959–1989. Demography32(3): 379–405.
42.
KlesmentMVan BavelJ (2015) The Reversal of the Gender Gap in Education and Female Breadwinners in Europe. Families and Societies Working Paper Series 26. Available at: https://lirias.kuleuven.be/handle/123456789/491575(accessed 17 August 2017).
43.
KollmeyerC (2013) Family structure, female employment, and national income inequality: A cross-national study of 16 Western countries. European Sociological Review29(4): 816–827.
44.
KorpiW (2000) Faces of inequality: Gender, class, and patterns of inequalities in different types of welfare states. Social Politics7(2): 127–191.
45.
LetablierM-TLuciAMathA, et al. (2009) The cost of raising children and the effectiveness of policies supporting parenthood: A literature review. DG Employment Report, European Commission. Available at: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/47857423.pdf(accessed 15 November 2014).
46.
LevyF (1998) The New Dollars and Dreams: American Incomes and Economic Change. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
47.
MandelHSemyonovM (2005) Family policies, wage structures, and gender gaps: Sources of earnings inequality in 20 countries. American Sociological Review70(6): 949–967.
48.
MareRD (2000) Assortative Mating, Intergenerational Mobility, and Educational Inequality. CaliforniaCenter For Population Research On-lineWorking Paper Series.
49.
MartinMA (2006) Family structure and income inequality in families with children, 1976 to 2000. Demography43(3): 421–445.
50.
MastekaasaABirkelundGE (2011) The equalizing effect of wives’ earnings on inequalities in earnings among households: Norway 1974–2004. European Societies13(2): 219–237.
51.
McLanahanSPercheskiC (2008) Family structure and the reproduction of inequalities. Annual Review of Sociology34: 257–276.
52.
MonaghanD (2015) Income inequality and educational assortative mating: Evidence from the Luxembourg Income Study. Social Science Research52: 253–269.
53.
MourreG (2005) Wage Compression and Employment in Europe: First Evidence from the Structure of Earnings Survey 2002. Economic Papers Number 232. Brussels: European Commission.
54.
NeilsonJStanforsM (2014) It’s about time! Gender, parenthood, and household divisions of labor under different welfare regimes. Journal of Family Issues35(8): 1066–1088.
55.
NieuwenhuisRvan der KolkHNeedA (2017) Women’s earnings and household inequality in OECD countries, 1973–2013. Acta Sociologica60(1): 3–20.
56.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2011) An overview of growing income inequality in OECD countries: Main findings. Available at: http://www.oecd.org/els/socialpoliciesanddata/49499779.pdf(accessed 18 January 2013).
57.
OppenheimerVK (1977) The sociology of women’s economic role in the family. American Sociological Review42(3): 387–406.
58.
OppenheimerVK (1997) Women’s employment and the gain to marriage: The specialization and trading model. Annual Review of Sociology23: 431–453.
59.
OrloffAS (1993) Gender and the social rights of citizenship: The comparative analysis of state policies and gender relations. American Sociological Review58(3): 303–328.
60.
PasquaS (2008) Wives’ work and income distribution in European Countries. The European Journal of Comparative Economics5(2): 157–186.
61.
PollertA (2003) Women, work and equal opportunities in post-communist transition. Work, Employment and Society17(2): 331–357.
62.
ReedDCancianM (2001) Sources of inequality: Measuring the contribution of income sources to rising family income inequality. The Review of Income and Wealth47(3): 321–333.
63.
SainsburyD (1996) Gender, Equality and Welfare States. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
64.
SchwartzCR (2010) Earnings inequality and the changing association between spouses’ earnings. American Journal of Sociology115(5): 1524–1557.
65.
SchwartzCR (2013) Trends and variation in assortative mating: Causes and consequences. Annual Review of Sociology39: 451–470.
66.
SchwartzCRMareRD (2005) Trends in educational assortative marriage from 1940 to 2003. Demography42(4): 621–646.
67.
SobelME (1981) Diagonal mobility models: A substantively motivated class of designs for the analysis of mobility effects. American Sociological Review46(6): 893–906.
68.
TorcheF (2010) Educational assortative mating and economic inequality: A comparative analysis of three Latin American countries. Demography47(2): 481–502.
69.
TóthIGMedgyesiM (2011) Income distribution in new (and old) EU Member States. Corvinus Journal of Sociology and Social Policy2(1): 3–31.
70.
TreasJ (1987) The effect of women’s labor force participation on the distribution of income in the United States. Annual Review of Sociology13: 259–288.
71.
WesternBBloomeDPercheskiC (2008) Inequality among American families with children, 1975–2005. American Sociological Review73(6): 903–920.
World Economic Forum (2015) The global gender gap report 2015. Geneva: World Economic Forum. Available at: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/GGGR2015(accessed 10 November 2016).
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
