This research has two goals: to measure the extent of assortative (non-random) mating by college major in the United States, and to assess the extent to which assortative mating by college major increases earnings inequality among college-educated couples. Assortative mating of college graduates with other college graduates has been extensively studied, but research on assortative mating by field of study is rare. The analysis uses a large sample (659,732 couples) from five years of the American Community Survey public use files to group college degrees into nine categories, compute the frequency of all marital pairings, and compare these frequencies to a random assignment of pairings. The results show that assortative mating by college major is common for all majors and both genders, and that these results are robust to division of the sample by age group. Because high-earning majors tend to be married to spouses from the same high-earning major group, and likewise for low-earning majors, assortative mating increases earnings inequality among two-earner college-educated couples. The extent of this increased earnings inequality is calculated with both dollar measures and standard aggregate measures of inequality. Thus college-educated Americans tend to marry persons with similar college majors and this tendency measurably increases earnings inequality among college-educated couples.

中文翻译：

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主要影响研究：美国大学毕业生的择偶交配和收入不平等

这项研究有两个目标：衡量美国大学专业的组合（非随机）交配的程度，以及评估大学专业的组合交配在多大程度上增加了受过大学教育的夫妇之间的收入不平等。大学毕业生与其他大学毕业生的组合交配已被广泛研究，但按研究领域进行组合交配的研究很少。该分析使用来自五年美国社区调查公共使用文件的大样本（659,732 对夫妇）将大学学位分为九类，计算所有婚姻配对的频率，并将这些频率与配对的随机分配进行比较。结果表明，大学专业的分类交配在所有专业和男女中都很常见，并且这些结果对于按年龄组划分样本是稳健的。由于高收入专业人士往往与来自同一高收入专业群体的配偶结婚，对于低收入专业人士而言也是如此，因此混合性交配加剧了双职工受过大学教育的夫妻之间的收入不平等。这种收入不平等加剧的程度是通过美元衡量和不平等的标准综合衡量来计算的。因此，受过大学教育的美国人倾向于与大学专业相似的人结婚，而这种趋势显着增加了受过大学教育的夫妇之间的收入不平等。这种收入不平等加剧的程度是通过美元衡量和不平等的标准综合衡量来计算的。因此，受过大学教育的美国人倾向于与大学专业相似的人结婚，而这种趋势显着增加了受过大学教育的夫妇之间的收入不平等。这种收入不平等加剧的程度是通过美元衡量和不平等的标准综合衡量来计算的。因此，受过大学教育的美国人倾向于与大学专业相似的人结婚，而这种趋势显着增加了受过大学教育的夫妇之间的收入不平等。