Intergenerational Transmission of Intermarriage and a Closer Look at the Spouse Choice Decisions of the Mixed Generation in Sweden

Aycan E. Celikaksoy, Stockholm University

This paper explores intergenerational transmission of interethnic union formation behavior within families. Using individual based panel register data from Statistics Sweden we find a strong association in union formation patterns between parents and their offspring. This association holds for all levels of individual and parental education and region of origins, whereas the explanatory power of mixed parental background varies by region of origin. In addition, to have an understanding of the mechanisms behind the intergenerational transmission of union formation patterns we decompose parental intermarriage into detailed categories by a cultural distance index to test whether there are asymmetries in spouse choice patterns in different dimensions between young individuals with mixed versus non-mixed backgrounds.