Same-Occupation Spouses: Preferences and Search Costs*

Married individuals match with spouses who share their occupation more frequently than should happen by chance if marriage markets are large frictionless search markets covering a particular geographic area. This suggests that either there is a preference for same-occupation matches or that search costs are lower within occupation. This paper uses 2008-2011 data from the American Community Survey to analyze within-occupation matching among a sample of recently-married couples. To distinguish between the preferences and search costs explanations, we use a differences-in-differences strategy that compares the difference in wages between same-occupation husbands and differentoccupation husbands across occupations with different percent male workers. Under the preferences mechanism, the difference should be decreasing in percent male. Under the search cost mechanism, the difference should be increasing in percent male. Our results are consistent with the search cost explanation. Furthermore, using an occupation-specific index of workplace communication, we demonstrate that the results are most consistent with the search cost mechanism for occupations with a greater degree of workplace communication. --------------*We gratefully acknowledge helpful comments from Chris Bollinger, Murat Iyigun and Rick Mansfield as well as seminar participants at the University of Kentucky and Osaka University.