The Spatial Distribution of Intermarriage in Spain: A Test of Competing Hypotheses

Antonio Lopez Gay, University of Minnesota
Albert Esteve, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

This paper uses Spanish marriage records (2005-06) and international migrant’s population counts from the Population Register to test competing hypotheses with regard to the spatial distribution of intermarriage in Spain. There is evidence that levels of intermarriage vary greatly across local marriage markets and local markets differ significantly in their marriage pool compositions because international migrants are not equally distributed in space. However, little attention has been paid to the causes behind these spatial differences. We use OLS spatial regression analysis to examine the effect of immigrants’ group size, heterogeneity, origin, sex ratio, and other characteristics on crude and net measures of intermarriage by sex at municipal and provincial levels.