Who gets the Better Deal in Marriage? Examining Racial Differences in Brazilian Marriage Market

Abstract

This paper studies women’ marriage market in Brazil, investigating socioeconomic disparities and their trends in marriage outcomes. Relying on nationally representative data from the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) covering 2002 to 2024, we analyze the association between marital status and these variables, as well as patterns of assortative mating by examining the educational and productivity pairing within couples. The results indicate that higher educational attainment among women is associated with a greater likelihood of being married, but, after accounting for education and age, black and mixed-race women continue to exhibit lower marriage rates relative to white counterparts. The analysis also reveals a strong persistence of educational assortment among spouses, but black and mixed-race women have lower quality husbands, even with sociodemographic controls, with non-consistent trends towards more or less inequality. We also show that a similar pattern arises across parental education, with black women from highly educated parents having lower marriage outcomes. Together, these findings advance the understanding of how economic sorting in the marriage market can reinforce broader patterns of racial and educational inequality in Brazil.