Educational Homogamy and Assortative Mating Have Not Increased *

Some economists have argued that assortative mating between men and womenhas increased over the last several decades, thereby contributing to increased familyincome inequality. Sociologists have argued that educational homogamy has increased.We clarify the relation between the two and, using both the Current Population Surveys and the decennial Censuses/American Community Survey, show that neither is correct. The former is based on the use of inappropriate statistical techniques. Both are sensitive to how educational categories are chosen. We also find no evidence thatthe correlation between spouses' potential earnings has changed dramatically.