Marital Matching Among Immigrants: A Multidimensional Approach

Abstract

This paper utilizes Becker’s theory of efficient marriage markets to investigate the patterns of marital matching in marriages between two immigrants and between an immigrant and a U.S. native-born. It employs the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series of the 2000 Census and finds support for positive assortative mating on age and education and negative assortment along income and/or hours worked. The results from estimated match matrices employing multiple individual traits reveal that while native-born men are more likely to marry immigrant women with similar traits, native-born women are least likely to marry immigrant men with similar traits when compared to the immigrant-immigrant matches.