Twice chosen: Spouse matching and earnings among women in first and second unions

Abstract

This study examines spouse matching for females in second order marriages or cohabitating relationships. It is based on detailed data from longitudinal Swedish population registers. We follow women who marry, divorce, and subsequently remarry compared to women who marry and remain married over the course of the study interval. The earnings of both groups, along with the earnings of their respective husbands, are modeled on the basis of data in the year prior to their marriages. From the regressions we obtain spouse-to-be pairs of earnings residuals and measure the correlation between spouses within each marital regime. Overall, we find significant positive residual correlations for both sample partitions. The correlation is smaller for the first of two marriages for women who divorce than for women who marry and remain married. For the second of successive marriages, however, the correlation is larger than that for women who marry but once. Also for twice-married women, we find evidence of matching between successive husbands. Women who marry men with unmeasured positive earnings capacities, in the event of divorce, tend to select and match in a similar fashion the second time around.