The decline of educational hypergamy in the former Yugoslav republics

Abstract

This paper examines marital market preferences and opportunities, given the gender asymmetry of education and the limited supply of equally educated partners (especially in the higher education segment), and explores selection patterns resulting from new composite changes for at-risk populations entering into a marriage. Specifically, we are researching mixed marriages by education and changes in the patterns of that selection in the former Yugoslav republics. The assessment of the impact of changes in educational characteristics by gender on patterns of marital pairing and the reduction of the level of educational hypergamy was performed by analysing the movement of F-index and H-index values from 1970 to 2020 and their correlation coefficient. The results showed that educational hypergamy is declining in all countries and that the decline in hypergamy is positively associated with the predominance of women among highly educated individuals.