How do outmarried Asians compare to their inmarried counterparts and to their spouses in terms of socioeconomic status? We attempt to answer this question by testing hypotheses derived from assimilation, exchange, and economic theories. The study is conducted using a representative U.S. sample of married Asians. Results based on multinomial logit analyses indicate that Asian women with lower educational attainment have a higher propensity to outmarry racially, irrespective of the race of their husbands. Corresponding findings for Asian men provide weak evidence of negative selectivity. Furthermore, those who outmarry racially tend to marry persons with lower levels of education than themselves. While challenging a few conventional wisdoms ingrained in sociological and economic theories, these findings support several others.
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