Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

Working Papers,
University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics

No 03-27: Marriage Migration: Just another case of positive assortative matching?

Aycan Celikaksoy (), Helena Skyt Nielsen () and Mette Verner ()
Additional contact information
Aycan Celikaksoy: Department of Economics, Aarhus School of Business, Postal: Prismet, Silkeborgvej 2, DK 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
Helena Skyt Nielsen: University of Aarhus, Postal: Dept. of Economics, University of Aarhus, Ndr. Ringgade 1, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
Mette Verner: Department of Economics, Aarhus School of Business, Postal: Prismet, Silkeborgvej 2, DK 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark

Abstract: It is a stylized fact that marriage formation generally involves positive assortative matching

(PAM) on education. We test whether this is also the case for immigrants who tend to import

their spouses and potentially use education as an exchange mechanism. We find that only

women match positively on education. For Turks the results robustly confirm PAM, whereas

for Pakistanis there is no evidence of PAM. For men there is local support to the exchange

hypothesis, since cultural assimilation or conflicts with parents, through less spouse import,

increase the likelihood of marrying a highly educated spouse.

Keywords: assortative matching; homogamy; exchange; marriage migration; spouse import

JEL-codes: J12; J15

30 pages, May 26, 2003

Note: Published in Review of Economics of the Household, 4, pp271-293, 2006

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