Table Of ContentWhoMarriesWhom?
European Studies of Population
VOLUME 12
The book series EuropeanStudies ofPopulation (ESPO)aimsatdisseminating population and family research,with
special relevance for Europe. It may analyse past, present and/or future trends, as well as their determinants and
consequences.
Thecharacterof the series is multidisciplinary, including formal demographic analyses,as wellas social,economic
and/orhistoricalpopulationandfamilystudies.
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EditorialBoard:
CharlotteHOlm,Bundesinstitutt\"urBev\"olkerungsforschung,(BiB),Wiesbaden,Germany
ThereseJacobs,PopulationandFamilyStudyCentre(CBGS),Brussels,Belgium
JaninaJozwiak,EuropeanAssociationforPopulation Studies(EAPS)
NicoKeilman,StatisticsNorway,Oslo,Norway
MiroslavMocura.PopulationActivitiesUnit,(ECE,UnitedNations),Geneva,Switzerland
MauraMisiti,IstitutodiRecerchesullaPopolazione(lRP),Rorna,Italy
Jean-MarcRohrbasser,Institut Nationald'EtudesDemographiqucs(lNED),Paris,Prance
ZsolltSpider,NKI,Budapest.Hungary
FransWillekellS,NetherlandsInterdisciplinaryDemographicInstitute(NIDI),TheHague,Netherlands
AdvisoryBoard:
lnesAlberdi,Universidad Complutense, Madrid,Spain,Herwig Birg,(lnstitut fur Bevolkerungsforschung, Bielefeld,
Germany),GraziellaCaselli,(UniversitadeglistudidiRoma"LaSapienza",Rome,Italy),DavidColeman,(Department
ofAppliedSocialStudiesandSocial Research,OxfordUniversity,United Kingdom),Jack Habib,(BrookdateInstitute,
Jerusalem, Israel), Kalev Katus, (Estonian Interuniversity Population Research Centre, Talinn, Estonia), Maire Ni
Bhrolchain,(DepartmentofSocialStatistics,Southampton,UnitedKingdom),VitaPruran,(DanishNationalInstituteof
Social Research, Copenhagen, Denmark), Serge Scherbov; (Population Research Centre, Groningen University,
Netherlands), David Sly, (Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA), Tapani valkonen, (University of Helsinki,
Finland),JamesVaupel,(Max PlanckInstituteforDemographicResearch,Rostock,Germany).
EditorialOffices:
GijsBeets
NetherlandsInterdisciplinary
DemographicInstitute(NIDI)
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NL-2502ARTheHague,Netherlands
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Fax.: +3I703647187
E-mail:[email protected]
TechnicalEditors:
Jacqueline\'(mderHelm
Thetitlespublishedillthisseriesarelistedattheendofthisvolume
Who Marries Whom?
Educational Systems as Marriage Markets
in Modern Societies
edited by
HANS-PETER BLOSSFELD
Olto Friedrich University Bamberg,
Germany
and
ANDREAS TIMM
Bremen University,
Germany
SPRINGER -SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
A c.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-4020-1803-9 ISBN 978-94-007-1065-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-1065-8
Printed an acid-free paper
Ali Rights Reserved
© 2003 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2003
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover Ist edition 2003
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, Of transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording
Of otherwise, without written permis sion from the Publisher, with the exception
of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered
and executed on a computer system. for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
CONTENTS
Preface vii
About the Editors ix
About theContributers ix
EducationalSystems asMarriageMarketsinModemSocieties:
AConceptualFramework
Hans-PeterBlossfeldandAndreasTimm
2 Who Marries Whom inWest Germany? 19
Hans-PeterBlossfeldandAndreasTimm
3 Who Marries Whom inFlemish Belgium? 37
Martine Corijn
4 Who MarriesWhom inFrance? 57
DominiqueGoux andEric Maurin
5 The When andWhom ofFirst MarriageinTheNetherlands 79
Nan DirkDe Graaf WilmaSmeenk, Wout UlteeandAndreasTimm
6 Who Marries Whom inItaly? 113
FabrizioBernardi
7 Who Marries Whom inSpain? 141
Marfa JoseGonza1ezLOpez
8 Who Marries Whom inGreat Britain? 171
Tak Wing Chan and BrendanHalpin
9 Who Marries Whom intheUnited States? 195
AndreasTimm,Hans-PeterBlossfeldandTeresa Lankuttis
10 Who Moves Togetherwith Whom inDenmark? 213
Seren Leth-Serensen
v
VI
II Who Marries Whom in Sweden? 235
UrsulaHenz andJan 0. Jonsson
12 Who Marries Whom in Hungary? 267
ErzsdietBukodiand PeterRObert
13 Who Marries Whom in Slovenia? 295
Sonja DobnicandNevenka CemigojSadar
14 Two DecadesofEducationalIntermarriagein Israel 315
Haya Stierand YossiShavit
15 AssortativeMating inCross-NationalComparison:
ASummaryofResultsandConclusions 331
Hans-PeterBlossfeldandAndreas Timm
PREFACE
Marriage and social inequality are closely interrelated. Marriage isdependent on
the structure of marriage markets, and marriage patterns have consequences for
social inequality.This book demonstrates that in most modern societies the educa
tional system has become an increasingly important marriage market, particularly
for those who are highly qualified. Educational expansion in general and the rising
educational participation ofwomen in particular unintentionally have increased the
rate of "assortative meeting" and assortative mating across birth cohorts. Rising
educational homogamy means that social inequality is further enhanced through
marriage because better (and worse) educated single men and women pool their
economic andsociocultural advantages (anddisadvantages) withincouples.
In this book we study the changing role ofthe educational system as amarriage
market in modern societies from a cross-national comparative perspective. Using
life-history data from a broad range of industrialized countries and longitudinal
statistical models, we analyze the process ofspouse selection in the life courses of
single men and women, step by step. The countries included in this book vary
widely in important characteristics such as demographic behavior and institutional
characteristics.The lifecourse approach explicitly recognizes the dynamic nature of
partner decisions, the importance of educational roles and institutional circum
stances asyoung men andwomen move through their lifepaths, andthecumulation
ofadvantages and disadvantages experienced by individuals. The book consists of
thirteen country-specific studies, each conducted by researchers who have an inti
mate understanding ofthe country in question. Most studies employed nationally
representative data, covering cohorts of men and women over a broad historical
period. As far as possible, very similar statistical analyses were used. But we pre
ferred to avoid complete standardization ofmethod because both the educational
system andthe ageatmarriage vary fromone country to another and overtime. The
book is theoretically driven and combines demographic approaches with rational
choice theory toexplainassortative mating.
The initial idea for this cross-national comparative project was stimulated by
empirical results from an event history analysis carried out on West Germany.This
research clearly indicated thateducational expansion hasincreased therateofeduca
tional homogamy inGermany.There has been an increasing closure ofsocial struc
ture and social networks asanunintended consequence ofeducational expansion.In
addition, we found that in Germany social origin has a strong effect on educational
homogamy. There have been strong direct and indirect effects offather's education
onmarriage patterns.
The primary aim inour thirteen-nation comparison was to check the generaliza
bilityofourfindings andinterpretations forGermany.Taking intoaccount theinevi-
vii
viii
table constraints of data availability and expertise, we tried to include countries
varying widely in important characteristics, such as educational systems, family
tradition, and the extent to which the roles ofmen and women have undergone a
progressive transformation. The countries included in our comparison are West
Germany, theNetherlands, Flemish Belgium (Flanders), France, Italy, Spain, Great
Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Hungary, Slovenia, the United States ofAmerica and
Israel.
As editors ofthe book and organizers ofthe cross-national research project, we
would like to thank all the contributors for their fruitful cooperation and for the
enormous effort they put into their analyses and country-chapters. We tried to use
comparable data and made a commitment to apply a common research design to
study the changes in "assortative meeting" and "assortative mating". However, the
contributors did not simply help us carry out a previously designed analysis. As
clearly indicated bythewealthofinformation inthecountry-specific chapters, much
ofthework inthisbookrepresentsthecreative contributions ofourcollaborators.
We are grateful to Gijs Beets who made very valuable suggestions on earlier
drafts ofthe manuscript and supported its publication as a volume in the European
Studies ofPopulation series. Allthe chapters inthebook were peer-reviewed by the
members oftheinternational group andrevised several times.They werealsoevalu
atedby twoanonymous Kluwer Academic Publishers reviewers.We arevery grate
ful for their thoughtful comments and constructive suggestions which improved the
qualityofthisbook.
The majorfinancial support forthecomparative project,inparticular forthejoint
workshop held in Bremen, was a grant from the German Research Foundation
(Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) for the Sfb-186 research project "Household
Dynamics and Social Inequality" at the University of Bremen. During the final
stages ofpreparing thisbook, support wasalso provided by agrant from theVolks
wagen Foundation (Volkswagen Stiftung) for the GLOBALIFE project at the Uni
versityofBielefeld andtheOttoFriedrich University Bamberg.
Our thanksgo toour former colleagues at theUniversity ofBremen for their su
perb collegial support. Inparticular, we wish to thank Faith Dasko who,as anative
speaker,copy-edited theentiremanuscript withgreatsensitivity.WealsothankJulie
Winkler-Vinjukova, who helped us organize the workshop, and improved the Eng
lish ofseveral chapters with great care. Invarious stages oftheproject, our student
assistants, Teresa Lankuttis, Lars Borchert, Thorsten Schneider and Ruben van
Gaalen, supported us with commitment and professionalism in coordinating the
projectandpreparing thetypescript.
Hans-PeterBlossfeld
OttoFriedrich University Bamberg
AndreasTimm
University ofBremen
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Hans-Peter Blossfeld has been professor and chair of sociology I at Bamberg
University since September 2002. He was full professor ofsociology and political
sciences at the European University Institute in Florence (1989-92), professor of
sociology(chair insocial statistics and sociologicalresearch methods) attheUniver
sity ofBremen (1992-98) and professorofsociology (chair in theory and empirical
analysis ofsocial structures and economic systems) at the University ofBielefeld
(1998-2002). Since 1990 he has been editor ofthe European Sociological Review.
He has published 15books and over 120articles on social inequality, youth, family,
and educational sociology, labor market research, demography, social stratification
and mobility, the modem methods of quantitative social research, and statistical
methods for longitudinal data analysis. He directs the GLOBALIFE project at the
OttoFriedrich UniversityBamberg (www.uni-bamberg.de/sowi/soziologie-i/).
Andreas Timm studied sociologyand lawatthe UniversityofBremen. Hismain
interests are research in family formation, educational sociology, social inequality,
andmethods forlongitudinal analysis.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTERS
Fabrizio Bernardi, took hisdoctorate insociologyandsocial research in 1998at
the University ofTrento. From 1998 to 2001 he worked as assistant professor of
sociology at the University of Bielefeld. Since 2001 he isprofessorofsocial struc
ture in the Department ofSociology II ofthe Universidad Nacional de Educaci6n a
Distancia(UNED),Madrid,Spain.
Erzsebet Bukodi is head ofthe Section of Social Stratification within the De
partment of Social Statistics ofthe Hungarian Central Statistical Office, Budapest.
She has fmished her PhD in sociology in 2002 about marriage timing and homog
amy in Hungary. Her research interests also involve educational inequalities and
different aspects of life course analysis. She is a participant of a research project
aiming to develop a new social indicatorsystem in Hungary. Her recent studies has
been published in European Sociological Review and in H.-P. Blossfeld and S.
Drobnic (eds.): Careers of couples in contemporary societies (Oxford University
Press, 2001).
NevenkaCemigojSadar, PhD inpsychology,is aseniorresearcherand anasso
ciate professorofsocial psychologyat the FacultyofSocial Sciences, Universityof
ix
x
Ljubljana.Hermain areas ofresearch are: changing lifepatterns,genderdivisions in
paid and unpaid work in relation to social policy measures and quality of life in
various life spheres. She lectures careermanagementon post-graduate program and
is amentor to graduate and post-graduate students. She participated inseveralinter
national comparativeresearch projects.
Tak Wing Chan is a university lecturer in sociology and a fellow ofNew Col
lege, UniversityofOxford. Hiscurrentresearch interests include social stratification
and mobility,and family and thelifecourse.
Martine Corijn is currently working at the Center for Population and Family
Studies - CBGS - in Brussels. Her main research interests are family and fertility
behavior and familypolicies.
Nan DirkDe Graafisprofessorofsociology, DepartmentofSociology,PO Box
9104, 6500 Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He is also a member ofthe research school
rcs and an associate member of Nuffield College, Oxford. He published various
articles on the consequences ofinequality (e.g.political, cultural,and health conse
quences), the impact ofcultural and economic resources on educational attainment,
and the sociologyofreligion.
SonjaDrobnicisprofessorofsociologyatthe UniversityofErfurt.Her main re
search interests include life-course research and gender, in particular employment
dynamics ofcouples and retirementin a household context, as well as issues in so
cialstratification,comparativeresearch,and longitudinalresearchmethods.
Brendan Halpin lectures in the DepartmentofSociology, University ofLimer
ick, Ireland. He was previously at the Institute for Social and Economic Research,
Essex, and Nuffield College, Oxford. Core interests include the analysis ofsocial
processes -marriage, divorce, social mobilityand the labor market- from a longitu
dinalperspective.
Jan O. Jonsson isprofessorofsociologyatthe SwedishInstitutefor Social Re
search, StockholmUniversity. His researchisin social stratificationand educational
inequality, family studies, and young people's living conditions. He is the co-author
ofCanEducationBe Equalized? (WestviewPress, 1996) and Cradle to Grave.Life
Course Change in Modem Sweden (Sociologypress, 2001). He is also responsible
forthe SwedishLevel-of-Living Surveys.
Teresa Lankuttis, born 1970 in Hamburg, finished her studies ofsociology at
Bremen University in 2002. She worked in the Special Collaborative Center 186
"Status Passages and Risks in the Life Course", participating mainly in project B6
''Household Dynamics and Social Inequality." Findings ofher thesis "Remarriage
After Divorce In Germany" have beenpublished in the Zeitschrift fiir Familienfor
schung (Journal forFamilyResearch) in2003.
Seren Leth-Serensen is a sociologist employed as senior advisor at Statistics
Denmark. Currently his office is at the University ofAarhus. His responsibilities
include managing projects for outsideresearchers.His main interest is labormarket
issues and family changes in Denmark. His has taken part in establishing the so
calledIDA-database.This alongitudinaldatabase forpersonsand firms inDenmark.
Maria JoseGonzQIezLopezisafull-time lecturerin the DepartmentofPolitical
and Social Sciencesatthe UniversitatPompeuFabra(Barcelona) and hasaPh.D. in
