Educational assortative mating in Italy: what can Gini's homogamy index still say?

Abstract

The homogamy index proposed by Gini is applied to describe the changes occurred in marital choice - across time and regions in Italy. The relevant increase in education by women has provoked an increase in the number of homogamous couples and in an increasing proportion of women who marry downward. Relevant differences are observed in the case of informal unions and mixed marriages. Alessandra De Rose, Professor of Demography, Department of Methods and Models for Economy, Territory and Finance, “Sapienza” University of Rome, Italy. E-mail: alessandra.derose@uniroma1.it . Romina FRABONI, Senior Researcher, Department of Social and Environmental Statistics, Italian National Institute of Statistics, ISTAT, Italy. E-mail: fraboni@istat.it .