Research On The Impact Of Educational Assortative Mating On Chinese Household Income Inequality

The income Gini coefficient was 0.468 in 2018,more than the internationally recognized warning line.Income inequality has become the focus of attention.Income inequality can be divided into individual income inequality and household income inequality.Individual income inequality is the basis of household income inequality,household income inequality will further react to individual income inequality through factors such as human capital and social capital investment.The main link connecting individuals and families is marriage.Since the reform,the mating pattern shave changed from ascribed features to achieved characteristics.With the implementation of higher education expansion policy and the increase of female labor participation rate,educational assortative mating has gradually become the main mode in the Chinese marriage market in recent years,posing a direct impact on the income distribution among families.Under the educational assortative mating mode,couples with similar educational background found a family."The combination of the strong and the strong,the weak and the weak" will further widen the gap in the ability of families to accumulate wealth and expand household income inequality.The existing research perspectives on household income inequality mainly focus on public transfer payments,population aging,and urban female employment.Therefore,interpreting the mechanism that resulting in household income inequality in China from the perspective of marriage matching mode can not only expand the research perspective and scope of research on income inequality in China,but also provide new micro-empirical evidence for narrowing income gap and optimizing income distribution.Concentrating on the impact of educational assortative mating on household income inequality,the existing literatures use counterfactual method to analyze the contribution of educational assortative mating to household income inequality.However,it fails to provide a mechanism to explain why educational assortative mating leads to the household income inequality.In view of this,this dissertation intends to adopt the recentered influence function regression method to empirically study the impact of educational assortative mating on household income inequality,and try to find its internal mechanism from the perspectives of higher education expansion and female labor participation,which makes up for the lack of mechanism analysis in related researches in China.This dissertation explores the mechanism of higher education expansion and female labor participation rate on the impact of educational assortative mating on household income inequality,and proposes that "educational assortative mating has a widening effect on household income inequality,while higher education expansion and the high female labor participation rate will further strengthen that”.Using data from the China Comprehensive Social Survey(CGSS)2003,2008,2010,2011,2012,2013,2015,this dissertation analyzes the development and current situation of educational assortative mating and household income inequality.In addition,this dissertation empirically analyzes the impact of educational assortative mating on household income inequality with recentered influence function regression method,and propose that the mechanism caused inequality is higher education expansion and female labor participation.The main conclusions are as follows: First,educational assortative mating is still the main mode of Chinese families,and the proportion of this marriage pattern is showing a rapid upward trend.Second,the household income inequality in China is not optimistic.The Gini coefficient of household income distribution in China reached its highest peak in 2010.The inequality of household income distribution is slightly higher than the inequality of individual income distribution.Third,educational assortative mating aggravates the overall income inequality of Chinese households,which is strengthened by the higher education expansion and high female labor participation rate.So we should take measures to narrow the income gap between families: First,reform the income distribution policy,and tax the household as a unit.Second,complete supporting policies for the popularization of higher education,and promote education equality.Third,ensure houseworkers’ welfare and help women make a balance between family and work.