Home page

On marriage markets, individuals tend to marry their likes. In Chiappori, Ciscato and Guerriero (2020), we estimate a model of multidimensional sorting with data on families with children collected in Naples (Italy) as part of the CHILDROLE project. We show that, after birth cohort, human capital is the second most important sorting dimension in marriage markets. In the North-East region of the plot, we find the defining characteristics of households where both parents have a high human capital (labeled Index 2 in the plot), whereas in the South-West region, we find the characteristics of households where both parents have low human capital. Variables in black with boldfaced labels refer to parental traits, whereas variables in red with labels in italics refer to family and child outcomes, e.g., the number of children, the child's grades, and the mother's labor supply.

Parents with a high human capital are typically more educated, have healthier eating habits, are taller, do more sports, are less worried about their health, and are less likely to smoke. The mother is also typically thinner (lower BMI) although the father is not. The mother is more likely to work and both parents tend to share tasks more equally. Their children do better in school and have higher grades in math and Italian than their peers. They also tend to pick up healthier eating habits, being less likely to be overweight and preferring Parmesan cheese over chocolate. However, they are also less likely to be happy, slightly more likely to smoke, and are less likely to get along with their mothers.