Robert Mare

Robert Mare developed influential statistical models that examine educational stratification by looking at the successive transitions students make through the school system. His models help sociologists understand how a family's socioeconomic background affects a student's likelihood of surviving from one educational stage to the next.

Mare extensively studied assortative mating, which is the sociological tendency of people to marry partners with similar educational and socioeconomic backgrounds. He found that increasing rates of educational homogamy can actually widen economic inequality between households over time.

Robert D. Mare was a highly influential sociologist and demographer associated with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Prior to his time at UCLA, he also held significant faculty positions at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

In his later career, Mare pioneered research into multigenerational social mobility, looking beyond just parent-child wealth transmission. He developed mathematical models to understand how grandparents' socioeconomic statuses independently affect a child's educational and life outcomes.