For immigrants, intermarriage with natives is assumed to have an assimilating role due to the

enhancement of local human capital such a union creates in the form of improved knowledge

about host country institutions, language and customs as well as access to native spouses’

networks and contacts. However, marriage choice is endogenous, unobserved factors

influence who we marry and our labor market outcomes. This study uses panel data on

immigrants and their spouses in Sweden to estimate marriage premiums taking into account

individual heterogeneity. This is done for three types of marriages; intermarriage to natives

and intra-marriage with immigrants from home countries or other (non-Swedish) countries. A

staggered fixed effects model is estimated separately for each marriage type to further

disentangle a causal effect of intermarriage (intra-marriage) on annual income from any

remaining positive selection effects into respective marriage type. Results from fixed effects

estimation indicate that all types of marriage (with one exception) yield positive marriage

premiums of similar magnitude. Significant pre-marriage income growth and a lack of postmarriage

income growth for those that marry natives suggest that intermarriage premiums are

largely due to selection.

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