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Educational assortative mating and income inequality in Thailand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2022

Sasiwimon Warunsiri Paweenawat Open the ORCID record for Sasiwimon Warunsiri Paweenawat [Opens in a new window]  and
Lusi Liao
Sasiwimon Warunsiri Paweenawat*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Economics, Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand
Lusi Liao
Affiliation:
Institute of Strategy Research for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Guangzhou, China
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: sasiwimon.warunsiri@gmail.com; sasiwimon@econ.tu.ac.th
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Abstract

This study examines the degree of educational assortative mating, its evolution, and its relationship with income inequality in Thailand using national labor force survey data from 1985 to 2016. Since the 1990s, Thailand shows a trend of decreasing educational homogamy, but there is evidence of continuing educational hypergamy in Thai households. Using the semiparametric decomposition method of DiNardo, Fortin and Lemieux (1996), the study finds that educational assortative mating has affected changes in household income inequality over time. Furthermore, there exists a negative relationship between income inequality and marital sorting with same education, which contradicts evidence found in developed countries.

Keywords

Educational assortative matingincome inequalityThailand

JEL classification

D31: Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions I24: Education and Inequality J12: Marriage • Marital Dissolution • Family Structure • Domestic Abuse
Type
Research Paper
Information
Journal of Demographic Economics , Volume 89 , Issue 2 , June 2023 , pp. 283 - 298
Copyright
Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain 2022

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