TY - UNPB
T1 - Wealth distribution within couples and financial decision making
AU - Grabka, Markus
AU - Marcus, Jan
AU - Sierminska, Eva
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - While most studies on wealth inequality focus on the inequality between households, this paper examines the distribution of wealth within couples. For this purpose, we make use of unique individual level micro data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).In married and cohabiting couples, men have, on average, 33,000 Euro more net worth than women. We look at five different sets of factors (demographics, income, labor market, inheritances, financial decision making in the partnership) that might explain this wealth gap. We find that all factors contribute to the explanation of the wealth gap within partnerships, with inheritances and income being particularly relevant. Furthermore, we find that specific characteristics (e.g. self-employment, no migration background, inheritances, high income) that decrease the wealth gap for women increase it for men. For men the respective coefficients are even stronger in absolute terms. When examining intra-partnership financial decision making, we find the gap to be significantly smaller when the female manages the money and larger if the male partner has the last word in financial decisions.
AB - While most studies on wealth inequality focus on the inequality between households, this paper examines the distribution of wealth within couples. For this purpose, we make use of unique individual level micro data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).In married and cohabiting couples, men have, on average, 33,000 Euro more net worth than women. We look at five different sets of factors (demographics, income, labor market, inheritances, financial decision making in the partnership) that might explain this wealth gap. We find that all factors contribute to the explanation of the wealth gap within partnerships, with inheritances and income being particularly relevant. Furthermore, we find that specific characteristics (e.g. self-employment, no migration background, inheritances, high income) that decrease the wealth gap for women increase it for men. For men the respective coefficients are even stronger in absolute terms. When examining intra-partnership financial decision making, we find the gap to be significantly smaller when the female manages the money and larger if the male partner has the last word in financial decisions.
KW - Intra-household allocation
KW - SOEP
KW - Wealth gap
KW - financial-decision making
KW - gender
KW - wealth inequality
M3 - Working paper
T3 - Working Papers
BT - Wealth distribution within couples and financial decision making
PB - CEPS/INSTEAD
ER -