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Dan Anderberg, Tanya Wilson and Timo Henor, Royal Holloway University of London and Yu Zhu, University of Kent
(Project no. 0301533, previously 30153)
The project aims to conduct econometric analysis to investigate how an individual's education level determines spousal choice, through exploiting exogenous variation induced by two education reforms: Raising of School Leaving Age (RoSLA - 1972/73) which increased the compulsory school-leaving age; and the increase in Higher Education participation rates (1980s).
Economic and social mobility can be influenced through marital choices. Significant correlations can be found between spouses on a variety of dimensions including age, education, social background and physical characteristics. Economic models of assortive mating stress the importance of human capital endowments, often proxied by educational attainment or qualifications, the key idea being that individuals choose spouses with similar education levels to their own.
The research is aiming to empirically assess the contribution of education in determining marital choice. The primary focus of the research is on the 1972/73 education reform in England and Wales, Raising of School Leaving Age (RoSLA), which increased mandatory schooling for individuals born from 1st September 1957 onwards. This exogenous variation in an individual's education allows identification of the causal effect of additional schooling through comparing the marital choices of individuals born either side of the RoSLA cutoff point.
The outcome of interest is the age-gap between spouses. An average difference in age between spouses of 2 years can be observed, with this age difference remarkably consistent across generations. Women born just after the RoSLA cutoff would on average have more schooling than males two years older than themselves who were not subject to the reform. In light of the assertive mating hypothesis, a plausible expectation is that as these women would seek spouses of similar education, and hence these men would have also been subject to the reform, implying a narrowing of the spousal age-gap.
An additional feature of RoSLA is that it compelled students to remain in school for the year in which the first tier of academic qualifications are taken, and therefore impacted the probability that an individual holds a qualification. The research will therefore also examine a more specific question, namely the effect of qualifications at the extensive margin on the choice of spouse.
A secondary focus of the research will be to examine a reform that impacted qualifications on the intensive margin, namely the impact of the expansion in Higher Education participation rates during the 1980s. This subsequent analysis will shed insights as to whether the effect of education on spousal age-gap is constant or varied throughout the education distribution.
The project will conduct econometric analysis of the causal effect of additional schooling on the spousal age gap. A large sample size facilitates the use of a non-parametric regression discontinuity design, the advantage being that causal inference would be more credible than that of a parametric methodology.