Trends in Assortative Mating and Offspring Outcomes

Abstract We study assortative mating of Norwegian parents over five decades and its consequences for offspring outcomes. Parents are characterised by the earnings decile their (the offspring's grandparents) as an indicator social class. While has remained stable across decades, parenthood become more skewed toward higher classes. Examining influence on education employment, we find that marginal effect one parent's class is smaller other. Overall, trends have contributed to slight improvements in average employment reduced inequality generation.