Research Group

Gender Inequalities and Fertility

Project

Educational Inequality in Union Formation and Fertility

Conducted by Nicole Hiekel; Julia Leesch

This project examines how educational stratification structures access to partnerships and parenthood. By disentangling structural opportunity constraints from assortative mating processes, it shows how educational expansion reshapes partner markets and translates inequalities in union formation into stratified fertility trajectories. Detailed Description

Research Keywords:

Demographic Change, Family Behavior, Fertility Development, Life Course

Region keywords:

France, Germany (Alte Bundesländer), Germany (Neue Bundesländer), Ireland, USA

Publications

Leesch, J.; Hiekel, N.:

No partner, no children? Union formation, assortative mating, and educational inequalities in fertility in Germany

European Journal of Population 42:8, 1–24. (2026)

Tobler, L.; Leesch, J.:

Workers, jobs, and how they are matched: a decomposition of US labor market trends in educational mismatch

Social Science Research 135:103311, 1–15. (2026)

Leesch, J.; Skopek, J.:

Five decades of marital sorting in France and the United States: the role of educational expansion and the changing gender imbalance in education

Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 97:101044, 1–15. (2025)

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Research