The expansion of higher education and its impact on patterns of union formation and assortative mating: evidence from Russia
Abstract
The paper aims to investigate the consequences of the gender-biased expansion of higher education for the marriage patterns and educational assortative mating of men and women in Russia. The effect of education is introduced at two levels: as an individual trait and as a feature of the local marriage market. Using multinomial logit regressions, we assess how a person's own education attainment affects the likelihood of being married and the choice of a partner with a certain educational level. Changes in the educational composition of the local marriage market are an exogenous factor. Results show that men’s level of education increases their chances of being married, while for women, a university degree does not affect the likelihood of their being married. The educational structure of the local marriage markets only slightly correlates with union formation and has a more pronounced effect on educational assortative mating. Women’s advantage in education fosters the already expanding tendency towards hypogamy among women. Men, however, tend to react more rationally to the reinforced women’s educational advantage, shifting their preferences from homogamy to a union with more educated women with potentially more appealing economic characteristics. The share of university graduates in the total population is statistically related to educational sorting only of men. Among men, the probability of marrying a less educated woman decreases as the share of university-educated people grows. However, the rates of expansion of higher education do not have significant implications for the educational sorting of both women and men.
Downloads
References
Abramitzky R., Delavande A., Vasconcelos L. (2011). Marrying up: the role of sex ratio in assortative matching. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 3(3), 124-57.
Angrist J. (2002). How do sex ratios affect marriage and labor markets? Evidence from America's second generation. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117(3), 997-1038.
Banerjee A., Duflo E., Ghatak M., Lafortune J. (2013). Marry for what? Caste and mate selection in modern India. American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 5(2), 33-72.
Becker G.S. (1973). A theory of marriage: Part I. Journal of Political Economy, 81(4), 813-846.
Becker G.S. (1974). A theory of marriage: Part II. Journal of Political Economy, 82(2, Part 2), 11-26.
Becker, G. S. (1991). A treatise on the family: Enlarged edition. Harvard university press.
Bertrand M., Cortés P., Olivetti C., Pan J. (2016). Social norms, labor market opportunities, and the marriage gap for skilled women (No. w22015). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Bessudnov A.R., Kurakin D.Y., Malik V.M. (2017). Kak voznik i chto skryvaet mif o vseobshchem vysshem obrazovanii [The myth about universal higher education: Russia in the international context]. Voprosy obrazovaniya [Educational Studies Moscow], 3, 83-109. (In Russ.)
Blossfeld H.P., Timm A. (Eds.). (2003). Who marries whom?: educational systems as marriage markets in modern societies (Vol. 12). Springer Science & Business Media.
Brainerd E. (2017). The lasting effect of sex ratio imbalance on marriage and family: Evidence from World War II in Russia. Review of Economics and Statistics, 99(2), 229-242.
Cherlin A.J. (2010). Demographic trends in the United States: A review of research in the 2000s. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72(3), 403-419.
Chiappori P.A., Iyigun M., Weiss Y. (2009). Investment in schooling and the marriage market. American Economic Review, 99(5), 1689-1713.
Darsky L.E., Ilyina I.P. (2000). Nekotoryye dannyye o sotsial’noy differentsiatsii brachnosti [Some evidence of social differentiation in marriage]. In A.G. Volkov (Ed.), Brachnost' v Rossii. Analiz tablits brachnosti [Marriage rate in Russia. Analysis of nuptality tables] (pp. 44-46). Мoscow: Informatika. (In Russ.)
De Hauw Y., Grow A., van Bavel J. (2017). The reversed gender gap in education and assortative mating in Europe. European Journal of Population, 33(4), 445-474.
Esteve A., García‐Román J., Permanyer I. (2012). The gender‐gap reversal in education and its effect on union formation: the end of hypergamy? Population and Development Review, 38(3), 535-546.
Esteve A., Schwartz C.R., van Bavel J., Permanyer I., Klesment M., Garcia J. (2016). The end of hypergamy: Global trends and implications. Population and Development Review, 42(4), 615.
Gihleb R., Lang K. (2020). Educational homogamy and assortative mating have not increased. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Goldin C., Katz L.F., Kuziemko I. (2006). The homecoming of American college women: The reversal of the college gender gap. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20(4), 133-156.
Ilyina I.P. (1997). Vliyaniye voyn na brachnost’ sovetskikh zhenshchin [Effect of wars on marriage rate of Soviet women]. In A.G. Vishnevsky (Ed.), Brachnost’, rozhdayemost’, smertnost’ v Rossii i v SSSR [Nuptiality, natality, mortality in Russia and in the USSR] (pp. 50-61). Moscow: Statistika Publ. (In Russ.)
Isen A., Stevenson B. (2010). Women's education and family behavior: Trends in marriage, divorce and fertility (No. w15725). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Itogi Vsesoyuznoy perepisi naseleniya 1989 g. (1989). Raspredeleniye naseleniya SSSR, RSFSR, eye avtonomnykh respublik, avtonomnykh oblastey i okrugov, krayev i oblastey po urovnyu obrazovaniya i vozrastu [Results of the All-Union Population Census of 1989. Educational level and age distribution in the population of the USSR, RSFSR, its autonomous republics, autonomous regions and districts, territories and regions]. Demoskop Weekly. Prilozheniya [Demoscope Weekly. Applications]. (In Russ.) URL: http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_edu_89.php?reg=2
Kalmijn M. (2013). The educational gradient in marriage: A comparison of 25 European countries. Demography, 50(4), 1499-1520.
Lewis S.K., Oppenheimer V.K. (2000). Educational assortative mating across marriage markets: Nonhispanic whites in the United States. Demography, 37(1), 29-40.
Lichter D.T., Anderson R.N., Hayward, M.D. (1995). Marriage markets and marital choice. Journal of Family Issues, 16(4), 412-431.
Liu H., Lu J. (2006). Measuring the degree of assortative mating. Economics Letters, 92(3), 317-322.
Mitrofanova E. (2019). Modeli vzrosleniya raznykh pokoleniy rossiyan [Models of the transition to adulthood of different Russian generations]. Demographic Review, 6(4), 53-82. (In Russ.)
Nielsen H.S., Svarer M. (2009). Educational homogamy how much is opportunities? Journal of Human Resources, 44(4), 1066-1086.
Oppenheimer V.K. (1988). A theory of marriage timing. American Journal of Sociology, 94(3), 563-591.
Oppenheimer V.K. (1997). Women's employment and the gain to marriage: The specialization and trading model. Annual Review of Sociology, 23(1), 431-453.
Perelli-Harris B., Lyons-Amos M. (2016). Partnership patterns in the United States and across Europe: the role of education and country context. Social Forces, 95(1), 251-282.
Roshchina Ya., Roshchin S. (2008). Brachnyj rynok v Rossii: vybor partnera i faktory uspekha [Marriage market in Russia: Choice of partner and success factors]. Matematicheskoe modelirovanie [Mathematical Models and Computer Simulations], 4, 21-37. (In Russ.)
Rosstat (2015). Mikroperepis’ naseleniia 2015 g. [Census population of 2015]. Rosstat. (In Russ.) URL: https://gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/population/demo/micro-perepis/finish/micro-perepis.html
Schofer E., Meyer J.W. (2005). The worldwide expansion of higher education in the twentieth century. American Sociological Review, 70(6), 898-920.
Schwartz C.R., Han H. (2014). The reversal of the gender gap in education and trends in marital dissolution. American Sociological Review, 79(4), 605-629.
Schwartz C.R., Mare R.D. (2005). Trends in educational assortative marriage from 1940 to 2003. Demography, 42(4), 621-646.
Van Bavel J., Schwartz C.R., Esteve A. (2018). The reversal of the gender gap in education and its consequences for family life. Annual Review of Sociology, 44, 341-360.
Volkov A.G. (1986). Semya – obekt demografii [Family is an object of demography]. M: Mysl'. (In Russ.)
Warner T.D., Manning W.D., Giordano P.C., Longmore M.A. (2011). Relationship formation and stability in emerging adulthood: Do sex ratios matter? Social Forces, 90(1), 269-295.
Zakharov S.V. (2013). Kuda dvizhetsia supruzhestvo v Rossii? [Where is marriage in Russia?]. Demoskop Weekly [Demoscope Weekly], 545-546. URL: http://demoscope.ru/weekly/2013/0545/tema06.php (In Russ.)
Zinchenko D., Lukiyanova A. (2018). Educational Assortative Mating and Income Inequality. HSE Economic Journal, 22(2), 169-196. (In Russ.)
Zinchenko D., Lukyanova A. (2021). Trends in Educational Assortative Mating in Russia: Do Changes in Educational Structure Matter? Universe of Russia, 30(1), 111-133. (In Russ.)
