Do Opposites Attract? Educational Assortative Mating and Dynamics of Wage Homogamy in Switzerland, 1992–2014

Laura Ravazzini; Ursina Kuhn; Christian Suter

doi:10.1515/sjs-2017-0028

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Do Opposites Attract? Educational Assortative Mating and Dynamics of Wage Homogamy in Switzerland, 1992–2014

Swiss Journal of Sociology

Volume 43 (2017): Issue 3 (November 2017)

By: Laura Ravazzini, Ursina Kuhn and Christian Suter

Open Access

|Dec 2017

Abstract

This paper addresses homogamy and assortative mating in Switzerland. The empirical analysis monitors trends for education and hourly wages using the Swiss Labour Force Survey and the Swiss Household Panel. The analysis disentangles the effects of educational expansion from mating patterns and incorporates not only couples, but also singles. Results show an increasing level of assortative mating both for education and for wages. For wage homogamy, selection is more important than adaptation.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/sjs-2017-0028 | Journal eISSN: 2297-8348

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Language: English

Page range: 567 - 586

Published online: Dec 19, 2017

Published in print: Nov 1, 2017

Published by: Sciendo

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

educational expansion,

Related subjects:

Methods, techniques, statistics,

Social structures, social interaction, population, social anthropology,

Sociology, other

© 2017 Laura Ravazzini, Ursina Kuhn, Christian Suter, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Volume 43 (2017): Issue 3 (November 2017)