@article {11684,
	title = {The effect of education on spousal education: a genetic approach},
	journal = {Labour Economics},
	volume = {71},
	year = {2021},
	pages = {102023},
	abstract = {We investigate the causal effect of education on spousal education using a sample of couples from the Health and Retirement Study. We estimate reduced-form linear matching functions derived from a parsimonious matching model which links spouses{\textquoteright} education. Using OLS we find that an additional year in husband{\textquoteright}s (resp. wife{\textquoteright}s) education is associated with an average increase in wife{\textquoteright}s (resp. husband{\textquoteright}s) education of 0.41 years {\textemdash}95\% CI: 0.37, 0.45 (resp. 0.63 years {\textemdash}95\% CI: 0.57, 0.68). To deal with endogeneity issues due to measurement error and omitted variables, we use a measure of genetic propensity (polygenic score) for educational attainment as an instrumental variable. Assuming that our instrument is valid, our 2SLS estimate suggests that an additional year in husband{\textquoteright}s (resp. wife{\textquoteright}s) education increases wife{\textquoteright}s (resp. husband{\textquoteright}s) education by about 0.49 years {\textemdash}95\% CI: 0.35, 0.62 (resp. 0.76 {\textemdash}95\% CI: 0.56, 0.96). Since greater genetic propensity for educational attainment has been linked to a range of personality and cognitive skills, we allow for the possibility that the exclusion restriction is violated using the plausible exogenous approach by Conley et al. (2012). A positive causal effect of education on spousal education cannot be ruled out, as long as one standard deviation increase in husband{\textquoteright}s (wife{\textquoteright}s) genetic propensity for education directly increases wife{\textquoteright}s (husband{\textquoteright}s) education by less than 0.2 (0.3) years.},
	keywords = {Causality, genes, instrumental variables, Matching, Plausibly exogenous},
	isbn = {0927-5371},
	doi = {10.1016/j.labeco.2021.102023},
	author = {Nicola Barban and De Cao, Elisabetta and Oreffice, Sonia and Quintana-Domeque, Climent}
}
@article {8549,
	title = {Assortative Mating on Education: A Genetic Assessment},
	number = {791},
	year = {2016},
	pages = {1-42},
	institution = {Department of Economics, University of Oxford},
	address = {Oxford},
	abstract = {Social scientists have overwhelmingly documented a strong and increasing educational homogamy between spouses. When estimating sorting by education, the presence of measurement error in the education variables or random factors in the matching process may underestimate the actual degree of assortative mating, simultaneity bias may overestimate it, while omitting other individual characteristics relevant in the marriage market may under- or overestimate it. We address these issues using an instrumental variables approach based on exploiting genetic variation in polygenic scores and controlling for population stratification. Specifically, we instrument spousal education with his/her educational polygenic score while controlling for own educational polygenic score. If the exclusion restriction is satisfied, our findings indicate that (1) assortative mating is underestimated when using OLS, and that (2) male education is correlated with other matching-relevant socioeconomic characteristics, while female education is productive per se in the matching. If the exclusion restriction is not satisfied, our evidence is consistent with (2). This suggests that individual socioeconomic attractiveness in the marriage market is multidimensional for men, but can be summarized with education for women.},
	keywords = {Aging, Education, Gender Differences, Marriage},
	issn = {1471-0498},
	url = {http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/810373/1/paper-791.pdf},
	author = {Nicola Barban and De Cao, Elisabetta and Oreffice, Sonia and Quintana-Domeque, Climent}
}
