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HUMAN CAPITAL AND INTERETHNIC MARRIAGE DECISIONS
Author(s) -
FURTADO DELIA
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
economic inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1465-7295
pISSN - 0095-2583
DOI - 10.1111/j.1465-7295.2010.00345.x
Subject(s) - endogamy , spouse , ethnic group , matching (statistics) , demographic economics , immigration , human capital , marriage market , assortative mating , economics , census , sociology , political science , economic growth , demography , population , law , statistics , mathematics , anthropology
Common explanations for the generally negative relationship between education and ethnic endogamy include (1) education makes immigrants and their children better able to adapt to native culture thereby eliminating the need for a same‐ethnicity spouse and (2) education raises the likelihood of leaving ethnic enclaves, thereby decreasing the probability of meeting potential same‐ethnicity spouses. This paper considers a third option, the role of assortative matching on education. If education distributions differ by ethnicity, then spouse‐searchers may trade similarities in ethnicity for similarities in education when choosing spouses. U.S. Census data on second‐generation immigrants provide strong support for the assortative matching mechanism. ( JEL J12, I21, J61)