Opleidingshomogamie in Nederland revisited: Stabiliteit of toenemende segmentatie op de huwelijksmarkt?

Using large-scale, representative survey data from the 1999, 2003 and 2007 waves of Aanvullende Voorzieningengebruik Onderzoek (AVO) we study trends in educational homogamy for the Netherlands between 1960 and 2010. Prior studies for the Netherlands focused on relative homogamy, the tendency to marry within the group given the supply of marriage candidates. We investigate next to relative homogamy, patterns and trends in absolute homogamy since absolute homogamy is consequential for social inequality and cohesion. Descriptive analyses display a decrease in absolute educational homogamy for lower educated men, a rise for higher educated men, and a decrease for higher educated women. Loglinear analyses of relative educational homogamy show relative stable patterns, except for an increase of relative homogamy for lower educated. Our findings indicate no uniform in- or decreased social segmentation on marriage markets in the Netherlands, and show that observed changes in educational homogamy are foremost due to changes in the supply of marriage candidates, and less so to changes in preferences for homogamy.