Individuals tend to partner with people of a similar educational level
as themselves. According to the matching hypothesis, exposure to
education leads to similarity in taste and values, causing educationally
similar partners form unions. In this study, I ask if such formative
content of education matters for educational homogamy, net of other
forces. Evaluating this claim is often difficult because educational
level also increases earnings prospects and because marriage markets are
structured by educational level - aspects which also lead to
educational homogamy. I approach this issue using a semi-experimental
design that tentatively holds constant marriage markets and human
capital related to education. Using a national reform, I compare the
educational assortative mating of upper secondary vocational students
who studied under a theoretical curriculum to that of vocational
students not exposed to a theoretical curriculum. The reform provides
variability in formative education. Yet, it induces no variation in
competitive earnings and marriage markets, as students obtain comparable
earnings within the same standard upper secondary track. Therefore,
effects may be attributed to matching on the formative content of the
added theoretical curriculum. Before and after adjusting for selection, I
find no effect of an added theoretical curriculum on partnering.