Do the formative aspects of education really matter for educational assortative mating? Cues from a natural experiment

Abstract

Individuals tend to partner with people of a similar educational level as themselves. According to the matching hypothesis, exposure to education leads to similarity in taste and values, causing educationally similar partners form unions. In this study, I ask if such formative content of education matters for educational homogamy, net of other forces. Evaluating this claim is often difficult because educational level also increases earnings prospects and because marriage markets are structured by educational level - aspects which also lead to educational homogamy. I approach this issue using a semi-experimental design that tentatively holds constant marriage markets and human capital related to education. Using a national reform, I compare the educational assortative mating of upper secondary vocational students who studied under a theoretical curriculum to that of vocational students not exposed to a theoretical curriculum. The reform provides variability in formative education. Yet, it induces no variation in competitive earnings and marriage markets, as students obtain comparable earnings within the same standard upper secondary track. Therefore, effects may be attributed to matching on the formative content of the added theoretical curriculum. Before and after adjusting for selection, I find no effect of an added theoretical curriculum on partnering.