This paper introduces a new framework for measuring the extent of positive assortative mating
(PAM) in the marriage market by relaxing the standard assumption of dichotomous sorting
levels. Conventional PAM measures treat marriage sorting as a binary outcome—either
perfectly matched or not—thereby failing to capture degrees of similarity between partner
types. We propose a continuous measure of sorting based on trait similarity, where individuals
are hypothesized to select mates according to the relative closeness of traits, which influences
marital payoffs. Trait similarity is quantified using multidimensional attribute data and
incorporated into a similarity-weighted matching matrix. We adapt conventional PAM
indices—including the normalized trace, aggregate likelihood ratio, and perfect-random
normalization—to this similarity-weighted framework. Applying our method to U.S. data on
occupational, religious, and educational matching, we uncover patterns in assortative mating
that are obscured under traditional approaches.
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