Parental age gaps among immigrants and their descendants: adaptation across time and generations?

Caroline Uggla and Ben Wilson

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Age gaps between partners have undergone dramatic changes in high-income countries over the past century. Yet, there has been little focus on age gaps for immigrants and their descendants. This is an important omission because age gaps can be interpreted as a macro-level indicator of intergenerational adaptation. We examine the age gaps of biological parents (childbearing partners) among immigrants and their descendants in Sweden, a country with high gender equality and a stable mean age gap. Using longitudinal, whole-population data, we examine changes in age gaps for cohorts born 1950–86. Cohort trends in age gaps often follow very different patterns for male and female immigrants, with limited evidence of adaptation across cohorts. However, there is considerable evidence of adaptation towards the Swedish norm among the second generation, including from direct comparison between immigrants and their children. The largest differences between women and men are seen among the first generation with a Swedish-born partner.

Keywords: adaptation; age difference; binational partnership; descendants of immigrants; immigrants; intermarriage; partnership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2021-12-23
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban, nep-eur and nep-mig
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Population Studies, 23, December, 2021. ISSN: 0032-4728

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:113765

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