Meeting at School. Assortative Matching in Partnerships and Over-Education

Arbeitspapier

This paper argues that assortative matching may explain over-education. Education determines individuals' income and, due to the presence of assortative matching, the quality of the partner, who can be a colleague or a spouse. Thus an individual acquires some education to improve the expected partner's quality. But since everybody does that, the partner's quality does not increase and over-education emerges. Tax progression to correct over-education has ambiguous effects on the educational incentives according to the individuals' ability. We test the model using the British Household Panel Survey. The empirical results support our theoretical findings.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Quaderni - Working Paper DSE ; No. 726

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Analysis of Education ; Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Tampieri, Alessandro
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche (DSE)
• (where): Bologna
• (when): 2011

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.6092/unibo/amsacta/4515
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/159567
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET