The Accumulation of Wealth in Marriage: Over-Time Change and Within-Couple Inequalities

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 580-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Kapelle ◽  
Philipp M Lersch

Abstract This study examines the accumulation of personal wealth of husbands and wives and investigates the development of within-couple wealth inequalities over time in marriage. Going beyond previous research that mostly studied the marriage wealth premium using household-level wealth data and that conceptualized marriage as an instantaneous transition with uniform consequences over time, we argue that entry into marriage is a gendered life-course event that dynamically shapes husbands’ and wives’ wealth accumulation. Using high-quality data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (2002, 2007, 2012, and 2017), we apply fixed-effects regression models to describe wealth accumulation within marriage. We find evidence that wealth premiums are lower during early years of marriage, but increase steadily thereafter. The premium is mostly concentrated in housing wealth. Results from supplementary analyses with limited data, however, suggest that the premium may not be causal for men. Regarding within-couple wealth inequalities, we find a pronounced within-couple wealth gap prior to marriage during pre-marital cohabitation. This gap remains stable over time in marriage. In contrast to findings regarding income, our study indicates that the institution of marriage may not amplify within-couple wealth inequalities further.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp M. Lersch

This study examines the association between marriage and economic wealth of women and men. Going beyond previous research, which focused on household wealth, I examine personal wealth which allows identifying gender disparities in the association between marriage and wealth. Using unique data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (2002, 2007, 2012), I apply random-effects and fixed-effects regression models to test my expectations. I find that both, women and men, experience substantial marriage wealth premiums not only in household but also in personal wealth. I do not find consistent evidence for gender disparities in these general marriage premiums. Additional analyses indicate, however, that women’s marriage premiums are substantially lower than men’s premiums in older cohorts and when only considering non-housing wealth. Overall, this study provides new evidence that women and men gain unequally in their wealth attainment through marriage.


2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
TIMOTHY J. CUNNINGHAM ◽  
LISA F. BERKMAN ◽  
ICHIRO KAWACHI ◽  
DAVID R. JACOBS ◽  
TERESA E. SEEMAN ◽  
...  

SummaryPrior studies examining the association between self-reported experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination and obesity have had mixed results and primarily been cross-sectional. This study tests the hypothesis that an increase in self-reported experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination predicts gains in waist circumference and body mass index in Black and White women and men over eight years. In race/ethnicity- and gender-stratified models, this study examined whether change in self-reported experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination predicts changes in waist circumference and body mass index over time using a fixed-effects regression approach in SAS statistical software, providing control for both measured and unmeasured time-invariant covariates. Between 1992–93 and 2000–01, self-reported experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination decreased among 843 Black women (75% to 73%), 601 Black men (80% to 77%), 893 White women (30% to 23%) and 856 White men (28% to 23%). In fixed-effects regression models, controlling for all time-invariant covariates, social desirability bias, and changes in education and parity (women only) over time, an increase in self-reported experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination over time was significantly associated with an increase in waist circumference (β=1.09, 95% CI: 0.00–2.19, p=0.05) and an increase in body mass index (β=0.67, 95% CI: 0.19–1.16, p=0.007) among Black women. No associations were observed among Black men and White women and men. These findings suggest that an increase in self-reported experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination may be associated with increases in waist circumference and body mass index among Black women over time.


Author(s):  
Gundi Knies

Understanding Society is a large representative household panel study for the uk. The study follows the same 40,000 households over time, beginning in 2009 and providing a detailed picture of how people’s lives are changing. One of the many innovative features of Understanding Society is that a great deal of information about neighbourhoods can be used alongside the individual and household-level information collected in the study, making it a useful study for neighbourhood effects analyses. In this paper the author explores four Understanding Society data products, based on four different types of rural-urban neighbourhood classifications, to throw light on how much heterogeneity in neighbourhood contexts is captured in the first waves of Understanding Society, including change in neighbourhood contexts.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Krug ◽  
Christof Wolf ◽  
Mark Trappmann

(English below)Dieser Beitrag geht der Frage nach, ob die sozialen Netzwerke von Arbeitslosen deren Chancen zur Aufnahme einer Erwerbstätigkeit positiv beeinflussen. Ausgehend von in der aktuellen Literatur diskutierten Wirkmechanismen werden mehrere Hypothesen zu unterschiedlichen Aspekten des Netzwerks aufgestellt. Es wird angenommen, dass Arbeitslose umso eher in Arbeit kommen, je größer der Umfang ihrer (starken und schwachen) sozialen Beziehungen ist, je mehr Kontakt zu Erwerbstätigen sie haben und je mehr Ressourcen ihr Netzwerk enthält. Auf Basis des Panels „Arbeitsmarkt und soziale Sicherung“ mit dem Schwerpunktmodul zu sozialem Kapital werden diese Hypothesen anhand einer Fixed-Effects Panelregression getestet. Wird für alle zeitkonstanten so-wie für einschlägige zeitvariante Variablen kontrolliert, erweisen sich schwache Beziehungen, gemessen als aktive Mitgliedschaften in freiwilligen Vereinigungen, sowie der Umfang nicht unmittelbar auf die Stellensuche bezogener sozialer Ressourcen als bedeutsam für die Arbeitsmarktchancen. Der Beitrag endet mit einer Diskussion dieser Befunde. This paper examines whether the social networks of unemployed people have a positive impact on their re-employment chances. Hypotheses are derived from the literature, concerning different aspects of the network. We hypothesize that the more (strong and weak) social ties, the more em-ployed friends the unemployed have and the more resources there are in their network, the higher their chances for re-employment. We use data from the Panel Study “Labour Market and Social Security” (Panel “Arbeitsmarkt und soziale Sicherung”), where comprehensive information on the unemployed persons’ networks is available. We use fixed-effects regression to control for observed time-variant and unobserved time-invariant confounders. We find weak ties in the form of active memberships in voluntary organisations as well as network resources that are not directly related to job search to be significantly related to re-employment. The implications of this finding are discussed.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. e0259264
Author(s):  
Marcel Gatto ◽  
Abu Hayat Md Saiful Islam

Rapid assessments have been emerging on the effects of COVID-19, yet rigorous analyses remain scant. Here, rigorous evidence of the impacts of COVID-19 on several livelihood outcomes are presented, with a particular focus on heterogenous effects of COVID-19. We use a household-level panel dataset consisting of 880 data points collected in rural Bangladesh in 2018 and 2020, and employ difference-in-differences with fixed effects regression techniques. Results suggest that COVID-19 had significant and heterogenous effects on livelihood outcomes. Agricultural production and share of production sold were reduced, especially for rice crops. Further, diet diversity and education expenditure were reduced for the total sample. Households primarily affected by (fear of) sickness had a significantly lower agricultural production, share of crop market sales, and lower health and education expenditure, compared to households affected by other COVID-19 effects, such as travel restrictions. In turn, (fear of) sickness and the correlated reduced incidence of leaving the house, resulted in higher off-farm incomes suggesting that households engage in less physically demanding and localized work. Policy-makers need to be cognizant of these heterogenous COVID-19 effects and formulate policies that are targeted at those households that are most vulnerable (e.g., unable/willing to leave the house due to (fear of) sickness).


Author(s):  
Nicole Kapelle ◽  
Sergi Vidal

AbstractConsidering soaring wealth inequalities in older age, this research addresses the relationship between family life courses and widening wealth differences between individuals as they age. We holistically examine how childbearing and marital histories are associated with personal wealth at ages 50–59 for Western Germans born between 1943 and 1967. We propose that deviations from culturally and institutionally-supported family patterns, or the stratified access to them, associate with differential wealth accumulation over time and can explain wealth inequalities at older ages. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP, v34, waves 2002–2017), we first identified typical family trajectory patterns between ages 16 and 50 with multichannel sequence analysis and cluster analysis. We then modelled personal wealth ranks at ages 50–59 as a function of family patterns. Results showed that deviations from the standard family pattern (i.e. stable marriage with, on average, two children) were mostly associated with lower wealth ranks at older age, controlling for childhood characteristics that partly predict selection into family patterns and baseline wealth. We found higher wealth penalties for greater deviation and lower penalties for moderate deviation from the standard family pattern. Addressing entire family trajectories, our research extended and nuanced our knowledge of the role of earlier family behaviour for later economic wellbeing. By using personal-level rather than household-level wealth data, we were able to identify substantial gender differences in the study associations. Our research also recognised the importance of combining marital and childbearing histories to assess wealth inequalities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-125
Author(s):  
Yoonjoo Lee

Previous research on the association between marriage and life satisfaction is limited due to the lack of attempts to investigate the time profiles of life satisfaction around marriage. This study addresses unresolved questions about the positive association between marriage and life satisfaction as well as tests if it is moderated by childhood parental divorce. Using 14 waves of the Korean Welfare Panel Study(N=3,890 individuals or 25,338 person-year observations), the author first used an ordinary least squares model with clustered standard errors and found that married people reported higher life satisfaction before marriage, compared to people who remained single during the survey. This result supports a social selection perspective. Next, the author used a fixed effects regression model and found that the transition into marriage was associated with an initial rise and subsequent decline in life satisfaction. Life satisfaction increased after reaching its lowest level in the third year of marriage. Life satisfaction after the transition into marriage was significantly higher than that observed three or more years prior to marriage. The result supports a social causation perspective. Such changing patterns were not moderated by parental divorce during childhood. This study advances the current literature on marriage and life satisfaction by using a nationally representative longitudinal data set as well as by testing social selection and causation perspectives.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Schulz ◽  
Marcel Raab

Objective: To examine how mothers’ and fathers’ time allocation for housework changes during the transition to postparenthood, i.e. when the last child moves out of their family households. Background: When the last child moves out, parental households are sized back to the situation before parenthood. Mothers and fathers are released from their direct parenting roles and parental time binds. This transition creates a context in which individual and coupled time allocation are likely to be rearranged. Methods: Changes in mothers’ and fathers’ housework time and mothers’ shares of total housework time were estimated using longitudinal fixed effects regression models, using data from the German Socio-economic Panel Study (1985-2019) on 1,004 households experiencing the transition to postparenthood. Results: Mothers’ time for housework declined by 11 minutes in the years before and by further 7 minutes per day at the transition to postparenthood, whereas fathers’ time declined by 6 minutes in the year after the last child has moved out of the parental household. Mothers’ share of total housework time remained constant around 72-75 percent around postparenthood. Analyses for different groups and specific tasks revealed no variations in the gendered trajectories of housework time. In general, mothers continued to do the majority of housework despite some slight convergence. Conclusion: The transition to postparenthood contributes slightly to the life-course convergence of housework time and thus, similar to all major life-course transitions following the birth of children, tends to reduce housework inequality in couples.


Author(s):  
Hye-Eun Lee ◽  
Nam-Hee Kim ◽  
Tae-Won Jang ◽  
Ichiro Kawachi

This study investigates whether workers with long working hours as well as shift workers perceive higher unmet dental care needs, and whether there is a gender difference in the associations. We used the Korea Health Panel (2009, 2011–2014) involving 20,451 person-wave observations from 5567 individuals. Perceived unmet dental care needs was defined when the participants reported that they perceived a need for dental treatment or check-up but had failed to receive dental care services during the past year. Fixed effects logit models were applied to examine how changes in weekly working hours or shift work status were linked to changes in perceived unmet dental needs within each individual. Among participants, 15.9–24.7% reported perceived unmet dental needs and the most common reason was time scarcity. We found that long working hours (>52 h/week) was significantly associated with perceived unmet dental needs due to time scarcity in both men (OR = 1.42, 95% CI 1.13–1.78) and women (OR = 1.35, 95% CI 1.03–1.79) compared workers working 40–52 h per week. Shift work was also a significant risk factor, but only in women (OR = 1.57, 95% CI 1.06–2.32). These findings provide evidence for labor policies to reduce working hours in order to improve access to dental care services.


2021 ◽  
pp. 194016122110252
Author(s):  
Sebastián Valenzuela ◽  
Daniel Halpern ◽  
Felipe Araneda

Despite widespread concern, research on the consequences of misinformation on people's attitudes is surprisingly scant. To fill in this gap, the current study examines the long-term relationship between misinformation and trust in the news media. Based on the reinforcing spirals model, we analyzed data from a three-wave panel survey collected in Chile between 2017 and 2019. We found a weak, over-time relationship between misinformation and media skepticism. Specifically, initial beliefs on factually dubious information were negatively correlated with subsequent levels of trust in the news media. Lower trust in the media, in turn, was related over time to higher levels of misinformation. However, we found no evidence of a reverse, parallel process where media trust shielded users against misinformation, further reinforcing trust in the news media. The lack of evidence of a downward spiral suggests that the corrosive effects of misinformation on attitudes toward the news media are less serious than originally suggested. We close with a discussion of directions for future research.


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