Gendered diverging destinies : changing family structures and the reproduction of educational inequalities among sons and daughters in the United States

The prevalence of nontraditional family structures has increased over time, particularly among socioeconomically disadvantaged families. Because children's socioeconomic attainments are positively associated with growing up in a two-parent household, changing family structures are considered to have strengthened the reproduction of social inequalities across generations. However, several studies have shown that childhood family structure relates differently to educational outcomes for sons than for daughters. Therefore, we ask whether there are gender differences in the extent to which changing family structures have contributed to the college attainment gap between children from lower and higher socioeconomic backgrounds. We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and 1997 cohorts to estimate extended Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition models that take into account cross-cohort changes in the prevalence of family structures and heterogeneity in the effects of childhood family structure on college attainment. We find that the argument that changes in family structures contributed to diverging destinies in college attainment holds for daughters but not for sons. This result is due to the different changes over time in the effects of childhood family structure by gender and socioeconomic background

Does parental separation increase inequality of educational opportunity?

This work thus invites scholars and policy-makers aiming at reducing inequality of opportunity for children to shift and extend their attention to include other factors, beyond family structure

The influence of educational marital homogamy on income inequality between households from a comparative perspective

In a search for determinants of societal levels of income inequality, scholars have suggested that homogamy within marriages and cohabiting relationships is a potentially important driver of inequality. If resourceful persons form couples together, and individuals without resources partner each other too, inequality between households is expected to be higher compared to the situation where partnerships are formed across groups. Education is an important socioeconomic marker on which partners select each other. The results of this paper, however, show that changes over time in educational homogamy are unlikely to have contributed to changes in income inequality. This finding is based on counterfactual simulations performed for 21 European countries and the United States using data from the Luxembourg Income Studies. In a second stage of the analysis we examine why changes in educational assortative mating mattered relatively little for changes in income inequality. A major hypothesis proposed in earlier research is that changes in educational homogamy have not been large enough to affect income inequality. However, based on simulations where educational homogamy are minimized and maximized, we document that even extreme changes in the association between partners' levels of education would not lead to major increases in income inequality

Educational assortative mating increasingly related to income inequality

12th Giornate di Studio sulla Popolazione: Populations Days, Florència (Itàlia), 8-10 febrer 2017

Changes in the well-being of same-sex couples following the legalization of same-sex marriage in England and Wales

Population Association of America (PAA). 2018 Annual Meeting. Denver, 26-28 AbrilIn this paper, we address the question to what extent the subjective well-being of same sex couples changed following the legalization of same-sex marriage in England and Wales in March 2014. We employ data from the Annual Population Survey to examine changes in several aspects of well-being during the period before and after legalization. The total period covered by the analysis spans from April 2011 to September 2016 and provides information on ~530,000 individuals including ~4600 individuals living in a same-sex couple. The analysis reveals substantial increases in well-being among same sex couples following legalization. In particular, reported levels of happiness increased and levels of anxiety decreased in the 12 months following legalization, compared to the 12 months before legalization. Additional analysis hints at a 'marital well-being premium' among same-sex couples, suggesting that the legalization could have influenced the well-being of same-sex couples who married in particular

A century of change in global educational inequality between and among genders

ISA RC28. Social Inequality and Mobility Revisited. Challenges Through recent Demographic Trends. Spring Meeting 201

Educational assortative mating as a determinant of changing household income inequality : a 21-country study

Despite the intuitive notion that educational homogamy matters for the distribution of economic resources across households, existing research finds that changes in educational homogamy have had little impact on inequality between households. In this article, we document whether this conclusion generalizes to 21 countries and aim to understand the reasons why. We use data from the Luxembourg Income Studies to simulate the impact of both observed and hypothetical changes in educational homogamy on inequality. If educational homogamy had remained stable over time, the estimated difference between observed and simulated inequality would have been below 1 per cent in most countries. Extreme hypothetical changes from maximum hypergamy and hypogamy to maximum educational homogamy were simulated to increase inequality between 7 and 41 per cent, depending on the country. Hence, even though changes in educational homogamy have the potential to affect inequality, actual changes observed in this study were not strong enough to have a major impact. Additional analysis revealed that the potential impact of educational homogamy was systematically lower in countries with high levels of female labor force participation. Future changes in educational homogamy might therefore have an even smaller impact on inequality as ever more countries attain high levels of female employment

Educational inequality across and within genders : a global perspective

Population Association of America (PAA). 2017 Annual Meeting, Chicago, 27-29 AbrilOver the last few years, two important phenomena have attracted the attention of social scientists: (i) the uneven global distribution of educational attainment, and (ii) the closing and reversal of the gender gap in educational attainment in favor of women. While it seems clear that these two phenomena are interrelated with one another, no previous study has attempted to investigate and flesh out the nature of that relationship. The main aim of this paper is to bridge this gap by putting together the different types of inequalities into a coherent whole. Our findings suggest that (a) overall educational inequality, as well as inequality among women, have risen together with increasing gender equality, but a decline in both types of inequality can be observed at higher levels of gender equality; and (b) the educational advantage of women over men is gradually becoming an important source contributing to global educational inequality

Educational assortative mating as a determinant of changing household income inequality : a 22-country study

Population Association of America (PAA). 2018 Annual Meeting. Denver, 26-28 AbrilIn a search for determinants of societal levels of income inequality, scholars have suggested that homogamy within marriages and cohabiting relationships is a potentially important driver of inequality. If resourceful persons form couples together, and individuals without resources partner each other too, inequality between households is expected to be higher compared to the situation where partnerships are formed across groups. Education is an important socioeconomic marker on which partners select each other. The results of this paper, however, show that changes over time in educational homogamy are unlikely to have contributed to changes in income inequality. This finding is based on counterfactual simulations performed for 21 European countries and the United States using data from the Luxembourg Income Studies.In a second stage of the analysis we examine why changes in educational assortative mating mattered relatively little for changes in income inequality. A major hypothesis proposed in earlier research is that changes in educational homogamy have not been large enough to affect income inequality. However, based on simulations where educational homogamy are minimized and maximized, we document that even extreme changes in the association between partners' levels of education would not lead to major increases in income inequality