Like Attract Like? A Structural Comparison of Homogamy across Same-Sex and Different-Sex Households
将贝克尔婚姻市场理论扩展到同性伴侣，构建均衡模型并用ACS数据估计，发现同性伴侣在年龄和种族上的正向匹配弱于异性伴侣，但在教育上女同性恋更强，劳动市场专业化主要见于异性伴侣。
In this paper, we extend Gary Becker's empirical analysis of the marriage\nmarket to same-sex couples. Becker's theory rationalizes the well-known\nphenomenon of homogamy among different-sex couples: individuals mate with their\nlikes because many characteristics, such as education, consumption behaviour,\ndesire to nurture children, religion, etc., exhibit strong complementarities in\nthe household production function. However, because of asymmetries in the\ndistributions of male and female characteristics, men and women may need to\nmarry "up" or "down" according to the relative shortage of their\ncharacteristics among the populations of men and women. Yet, among same-sex\ncouples, this limitation does not exist as partners are drawn from the same\npopulation, and thus the theory of assortative mating would boldly predict that\nindividuals will choose a partner with nearly identical characteristics.\nEmpirical evidence suggests a very different picture: a robust stylized fact is\nthat the correlation of the characteristics is in fact weaker among same-sex\ncouples. In this paper, we build an equilibrium model of same-sex marriage\nmarket which allows for straightforward identification of the gains to\nmarriage. We estimate the model with 2008-2012 ACS data on California and show\nthat positive assortative mating is weaker for homosexuals than for\nheterosexuals with respect to age and race. Our results suggest that positive\nassortative mating with respect to education is stronger among lesbians, and\nnot significantly different when comparing gay men and married different-sex\ncouples. As regards labor market outcomes, such as hourly wages and working\nhours, we find some indications that the process of specialization within the\nhousehold mainly applies to different-sex couples.\n