Stockholm university

Margarita ChudnovskayaResearcher

About me

I am post-doctoral researcher at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI). My current work is divided between research on family inequality and educational inequality. My research in these fields is unified by my use of Swedish register data and attention to multiple measures/dimensions of socio-economic status. To very broadly summarize my research: In family research, I am interested in inequalities between what type of families individuals live in (alone, partnered, with children), inequalities within families (relative status of partners), and inequalities between families (which families have more resources than others). In educational research, I am interested in educational expansion and diversification of post-secondary education, for example post-secondary online distance education and post-secondary vocational training. I am also working on students' choices of educational field.

I am currently a member of several projects: (1) the FORTE Program Interlocking inequalities: A multidimensional perspective on inequality in contemporary Sweden, with Carina Mood as the PI; (2) the FORTE Program ALL-INCLUSIVE: cohesion and inclusion in work-life change, with Michael Tåhlin as the PI; (3) the VR educational research project Right competence at the right time--but for whom? with Rebecca Ye as the PI; (4) the FORTE post-doc project "Unequal families: mapping out socio-economic status inequalities between and within Swedish households" where I am the sole researcher.

I received my Ph.D. from the Stockholm Univerity Department of Sociology, where I was also employed on the register based research project SIMSAM. In my doctoral research I used register data to study how the expansion of tertiary expansion in Sweden has affected patterns of union formation and educational assortative mating. Prior to coming to Stockholm University I studied at University of California, Berkeley where I received my B.A. (political economy) and my M.A. (demography). A link to my CV is available on the right.

My publications

Chudnovskaya, Margarita and Ridhi Kashyap (forthcoming) “Is the end of educational hypergamy the end of hypergamy? Evidence from Sweden.” European Sociological Review.

Chudnovskaya, Margarita (2018) "Trends in childlessness among highly educated men in Sweden." European Journal of Population, DOI.

Chudnovskaya, Margarita (2018) "Housing context and childbearing in Sweden: a cohort study." Housing Studies, DOI.

Chudnovskaya, Margarita, & Kolk, Martin (2015) “Educational Expansion and Intergenerational Proximity in Sweden” Population, Space and Place, DOI.

Research projects

Publications

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

  • Higher education and family formation

    2017. Margarita Chudnovskaya (et al.).

    Thesis (Doc)

    The subject of this dissertation is trends in family formation among highly educated men and women in Sweden. The highly educated have typically differed from other educational groups in their patterns of childbearing. This has particularly been

    the case for highly educated women, who used to be in the minority among the highly educated and who were much more likely to be childless than other women. The goal of this dissertation is to understand how the expansion of higher education has transformed  the formation of childbearing unions among the highly educated group. The context for the dissertation is the dramatic expansion of higher education which has occurred in Sweden over the last half century. As the share of cohorts graduating from post-secondary education has grown, diversity among the highly educated has also increased. This dissertation draws upon rich Swedish administrative register data to answer questions about changes in the behavior of the highly educated group, as well as emerging stratification within the group. This dissertation consists of five studies and an introductory chapter.

    In Study 1, we examine changes in geographical distances between young couples and their parents. We find that among younger cohorts, generations live further apart. The expansion of higher education contributes to these distances, though the introduction of regional colleges has mediated the impact of educational expansion to some extent. In Study 2, we consider how effective colleges are as partner markets. We follow one birth cohort (1970), and examine the likelihood that they form a childbearing union with someone who attended the same university at the same time. We find that colleges are an important potential meeting place for childbearing partners, and examine how the likelihood of partnering with a fellow student is related to the college composition.

    In Study 3, I assess changes in partner choice among the highly educated, by comparing the likelihood that highly

    educated men and women born in 1940-2, 1950-2, 1960-2, and 1970-2 form a childbearing union, and whether they do

    so with a highly or a lower educated partner. I find that female graduates are much more likely to enter unions, and to

    “partner down”. Men’s likelihood of forming a childbearing union hasn’t changed across cohorts, but men from later cohorts are much more likely to find a highly educated partner than men from earlier cohorts. I show that partnership outcomes for graduates are related to social class background, university experience (degree length and institution type), and post-graduation income. In Study 4, we study unions with at least one highly educated partner, including men and women born in 1950-2, 1960-2, 1970-2, and 1980-2. We examine the extent to which educational (in)equality is mirrored in other measures of status such as social class background, income, and occupational prestige. We conclude that although the number of women “partnering down” in terms of education has increased dramatically, these unions are not necessarily characterized by female status-dominance more generally. In Study 5, I focus on highly educated men who do not form any childbearing union, studying men born in the years 1945-1974. I find that the consistent levels of childlessness among highly educated men may best be explained by changes in the composition of graduates in terms of field of study and post-graduation income.

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