Changes during the 1990's in the location of Swedish Power Couples: Consequences and Explanations

Between 1990 and 1998 there was an increase by 4 percentage points of couples where both individuals were college educated, so-called power couples, in Swedish cities. During the same period, the shares of non-college educated couples and college educated singles increased by only 1 percentage point, respectively. The study argues that the observed trends are explained neither by the co-location hypothesis nor the marriage market hypothesis. Instead it seems that the differential household trends in city location coincide with differential trends in the city earnings premium. The city earnings premium has increased during the 1990´s particularly for college educated men and women in couples.