Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Rich and poor Americans are slowly
but surely staking out separate lives. Increasingly, they have
been moving to different communities, and more and more they are
also marrying people of similar income and educational
backgrounds. This is a phenomenon social scientists call
assortative mating.
In 2005, 58 percent of wives with a high school diploma
were married to men with the same amount of education, new
research by economist Jeremy Greenwood of the University of
Pennsylvania and three colleagues shows. In 1960, by contrast,
only 42 percent of wives with high school diplomas were married
to men with the same level of education.
