“Married 10 years after college is a measure of “educational success”?!?!?!!” @CU123 at #9:
The researchers must think this statistic is a signal for things not picked up by the available tax return data. Perhaps it’s correlated with having a steady job, raising children in a home that you own, etc. (note that if they had access to Schedule A data, they could also - very easily - figure out home ownership from the mortgage interest deduction). In any case, according to the latest media reports millennial are marrying at much lower rates and/or later ages than in the past so that statistic may not be as relevant going forward. It assumes an underlying cultural norm that may well be changing.