Table 6.
Two-Sex Assortative Mating and Force of Attraction (Age 25–60)
| Occupation, Women | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Occupation, Men | 1. Upper nonmanual | 2. Lower nonmanual | 3. Upper manual | 4. Lower manual | 5. Farming | N |
| 1. Upper nonmanual | 0.858 | 0.723 | 0.181 | 0.253 | 0.018 | |
| (348) | (431) | (78) | (146) | (2) | 1,005 | |
| 2. Lower nonmanual | 0.321 | 0.643 | 0.219 | 0.323 | 0.010 | |
| (98) | (259) | (70) | (127) | (1) | 555 | |
| 3. Upper manual | 0.274 | 0.677 | 0.642 | 0.673 | 0.164 | |
| (126) | (487) | (316) | (465) | (19) | 1,413 | |
| 4. Lower manual | 0.220 | 0.400 | 0.560 | 0.849 | 0.307 | |
| (95) | (263) | (259) | (537) | (35) | 1,189 | |
| 5. Farming | 0.078 | 0.142 | 0.194 | 0.409 | 0.863 | |
| (13) | (27) | (33) | (77) | (69) | 219 | |
| N | 680 | 1,467 | 756 | 1,352 | 126 | 4,381 |
Source: Panel Study of Income Dynamics, 1968–2015.
Notes: Numbers in parentheses refer to the number of marriages within each assortative mating category. The parameter for the “force of attraction” (αij) represents the likelihood that men and women from two occupation groups will form unions. This value is a function of preferences between two occupation groups and constraints imposed by the sizes of the two groups. The force of attraction is defined in equation (37).