Positive assortative mating may be a driver of wealth inequalities, but this relationship has not yet been examined. We investigate the association between assortative mating and wealth inequality within and between households drawing on data from the United States Survey of Income and Program Participation and measuring current, individual-level wealth for newly formed couples (N = 3936 couples). We find that partners positively sort according to wealth over and above sorting by age, race, education, and income. In the absence of assortative mating according to wealth, the Gini coefficient for between-household wealth inequality would be 7 percent lower. Wealth inequalities would thus remain high if couples did not match by wealth. We find a within-household wealth gap of about USD 23,000 to the disadvantage of women. Whereas the within-household wealth gap would be markedly greater for women at the bottom and in the middle of the female wealth distribution without assortative mating, we also find that women would have a substantial wealth advantage under random matching at the top of the female wealth distribution.

中文翻译：

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家庭之间和家庭内部的选型匹配和财富不平等

积极的配对可能是财富不平等的驱动因素，但这种关系尚未得到检验。我们利用美国收入和项目参与调查的数据，并衡量新成立的夫妇（N = 3936 对夫妇）的当前个人财富水平，调查了家庭内部和家庭之间的选型交配与财富不平等之间的关联。我们发现，除了按年龄、种族、教育和收入排序之外，合作伙伴更积极地根据财富进行排序。在没有根据财富进行配对的情况下，家庭间财富不平等的基尼系数将降低 7%。因此，如果夫妻的财富不匹配，财富不平等将继续居高不下。我们发现家庭内部的贫富差距约为 23,000 美元，对女性不利。