Assortative Mating by Education and Hukou in Shanghai

Abstract

Hukou locality (local vs. nonlocal) is an important source of social inequality in urban China. Residents with Shanghai hukou, for example, have better access to social benefits, jobs, schools, and other opportunities in Shanghai. In this paper, using data from the 2013 Fudan Yangtze River Delta Social Transformation Survey, we evaluate how hukou locality intersects with educational attainment to shape assortative marriage patterns among individuals born in the 1980s and living in Shanghai. We find that highly-educated hukou residents and non-hukou migrants are more likely than their less-educated counterparts to marry hukou residents. In addition, hukou intermarriage seldom occurs when hukou residents marry non-hukou migrants with less education than themselves. The results suggest that Shanghai hukou is a valuable attribute in the Shanghai marriage market and shapes marriage market conditions and individual marital choices.