scholarly journals Gendered Wealth Losses after Dissolution of Cohabitation but not Marriage in Germany

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diederik Boertien ◽  
Philipp M. Lersch

Objective: To document gender differences in how economic wealth changes following the dissolution of marriage and cohabitation in Germany.Background: Wealth can be an important resource to deal with the adverse economic consequences of union dissolution. Marital property regimes usually ensure that both partners receive a share of the couples’ wealth following a divorce. The dissolution of cohabiting unions is not governed by such rules in most countries, including Germany, which may lead to a more unequal division of wealth following the dissolution of cohabitation as compared to marriage.Method: The analysis consists of multivariable fixed-effects regression models based on longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (N = 6,388 individuals) for the years 2002 to 2017.Results: Changes in wealth are relatively similar for men and women after the dissolution of marriage. The dissolution of cohabiting unions is related to losses in wealth for women, but not for men. Controlling for post-dissolution processes, gender inequality increases after the dissolution of cohabitations.Conclusion: Union dissolution is associated with wealth losses. The legal protection of the economically weaker spouse in marriage prevents gender inequality in these wealth losses. Lacking such legal protection, cohabitation is associated with gender inequality in the consequences of dissolution.

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.


2020 ◽  
pp. 004912412091493
Author(s):  
Marco Giesselmann ◽  
Alexander W. Schmidt-Catran

An interaction in a fixed effects (FE) regression is usually specified by demeaning the product term. However, algebraic transformations reveal that this strategy does not yield a within-unit estimator. Instead, the standard FE interaction estimator reflects unit-level differences of the interacted variables. This property allows interactions of a time-constant variable and a time-varying variable in FE to be estimated but may yield unwanted results if both variables vary within units. In such cases, Monte Carlo experiments confirm that the standard FE estimator of x ⋅ z is biased if x is correlated with an unobserved unit-specific moderator of z (or vice versa). A within estimator of an interaction can be obtained by first demeaning each variable and then demeaning their product. This “double-demeaned” estimator is not subject to bias caused by unobserved effect heterogeneity. It is, however, less efficient than standard FE and only works with T > 2.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Scrivner ◽  
Manuel Díaz-Campos

In recent years there has been growing interest in quantitative methods for analyzing linguistic data.  Advanced multifactorial statistical analyses, such as inferential trees and mixed-effects logistic regression models, have become more accessible for linguistic research as a result of the availability of an open source programming environment provided by the statistical software R. In the present paper, we introduce a novel toolkit, Language Variation Suite, a software program that offers a friendly environment for conducting quantitative analyses. We demonstrate how theory built on traditional monofactorial analysis can be extended to macro and micro multifactorial approaches allowing for a deeper understanding of language variation. The focus of the analysis is based on intervocalic /d/ deletion in Spanish from the Diachronic Study of the Speech of Caracas 1987 and 2004-2010. In contrast to traditional methodological approaches we have treated intervocalic /d/ as a continuous dependent variable according to the intensity ratio measurements obtained. Furthermore, we have integrated various syntactic, phonetic and sociolinguistic factors. Non-parametric and fixed-effects regression models revealed that overall age (younger speakers), sex (male speakers), phonetic context (low vowels), token frequency and morphosyntactic category (past participles) have a significant effect on the lenition of intervocalic /d/. In contrast, the mixed-effects model selected only phonetic context, frequency and category, showing that individual speaker variation is higher than group variation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Hajek

This study researches the associations between having an abortion, relationship satisfaction, and union dissolution. Empirical evidence on this topic is scarce, and there is a pronounced lack of studies analysing longitudinal data: Most previous studies have used data from women recruited from abortion clinics who are about to undergo an abortion, and therefore do not incorporate a prospective measure of relationship satisfaction pre-pregnancy. Panel studies, on the other hand, collect prospective data on various topics and allow for the estimation of more advanced models that can help identify causal mechanisms. Using data from the German Family Panel pairfam in combination with pooled logistic regressions, discrete-time event history models, as well as fixed effects regression models, this study compares relationships up to nine years before having had an abortion and eight years afterwards. The findings of the analyses can neither confirm that relationship satisfaction acts as a confounding factor that influences both the likelihood of terminating a pregnancy and union dissolution, nor as a mediating factor between having an abortion and union dissolution. A negative effect of having an abortion on relationship satisfaction appears to be only temporary. In the year of an abortion, relationship satisfaction decreases slightly. In the following years, a significant difference in relationship satisfaction to pre-abortion years is no longer visible. By using panel data, the temporal order of events can be retraced, resulting in the discovery that relationship satisfaction and union dissolution do not change drastically from pre-abortion values after having an abortion. * This article belongs to a special issue on "Identification of causal mechanisms in demographic research: The contribution of panel data".


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kosuke Imai ◽  
In Song Kim

Abstract The two-way linear fixed effects regression (2FE) has become a default method for estimating causal effects from panel data. Many applied researchers use the 2FE estimator to adjust for unobserved unit-specific and time-specific confounders at the same time. Unfortunately, we demonstrate that the ability of the 2FE model to simultaneously adjust for these two types of unobserved confounders critically relies upon the assumption of linear additive effects. Another common justification for the use of the 2FE estimator is based on its equivalence to the difference-in-differences estimator under the simplest setting with two groups and two time periods. We show that this equivalence does not hold under more general settings commonly encountered in applied research. Instead, we prove that the multi-period difference-in-differences estimator is equivalent to the weighted 2FE estimator with some observations having negative weights. These analytical results imply that in contrast to the popular belief, the 2FE estimator does not represent a design-based, nonparametric estimation strategy for causal inference. Instead, its validity fundamentally rests on the modeling assumptions.


2020 ◽  
pp. 088626052096714
Author(s):  
Aparna P. Lolayekar ◽  
Shaila Desouza ◽  
Pranab Mukhopadhyay

Crimes against women (CAW) in India have been rising despite faster economic growth, higher education attainment, and increasing numbers of women in the economic sphere. This article explores the reasons for the incidence of reported CAW in India. We study five CAW (rape, kidnapping, cruelty, dowry deaths, and molestation), across 35 states and union territories, 594 districts, over three decades (1991–2011). We use panel fixed-effects regression models to explain crime. Our results confirm the importance of female literacy rates, female paid workforce participation, and female–male ratio in understanding crime. We find that these commonly-used socioeconomic variables have nonlinear effects on CAW. Our findings improve upon earlier results that have not explored either spatial distribution or nonlinearity in India. These findings could have significant implications for the policies aiming to reduce CAW.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukas Boesch

AbstractAre the lockdown measures limiting the propagation of COVID-19? Recent analyses on the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions in reducing COVID-19 growth rates delivered conflicting conclusions. While Haug et al. (2020) did find strong empirical support for reductions in COVID-19 growth rates, Bendavid et al. (2021) did not. Here, I present the results of a reanalysis of the data by Bendavid et al. (2021). Instead of relying on pairwise comparisons between 10 countries with fixed-effects regression models to isolate the effect of lockdown measures, I modelled the development of the pandemic with and without lockdown measures for the entire period and all countries included in the data with one mixed-effects regression model. My results reconciled the conflicting conclusions of Haug et al. (2020) and Bendavid et al. (2021): while mandatory business closure orders did not affect COVID-19 growth rates, a general decrease in COVID-19 growth rates was attributable to the implementation of mandatory stay-at-home orders. However, the effect of mandatory stay-at-home orders varied, being weaker, even zero, in some countries and sub-national units and stronger in others, where COVID-19 growth rates only decreased due to the implementation of mandatory stay-at-home orders. The heterogeneity in the effect of mandatory stay-at-home orders on the spread of COVID-19 is challenging from a scientific and political point of view.


2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (5) ◽  
pp. 490-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Kelly Garrett ◽  
Jacob A Long ◽  
Min Seon Jeong

Abstract This article provides evidence that affective polarization is an important mechanism linking conservative media use to political misperceptions. Partisan media’s potential to polarize is well documented, and there are numerous ways in which hostility toward political opponents might promote the endorsement of inaccurate beliefs. We test this mediated model using data collected via nationally representative surveys conducted during two recent U.S. presidential elections. Fixed effects regression models using three-wave panel data collected in 2012 provide evidence that conservative media exposure contributes to more polarized feelings toward major-party presidential candidates, and this growing favorability gap is associated with misperceptions critical of the Democrats. Further, these effects are more pronounced among Republicans than among Democrats. Cross-sectional analyses using data collected in 2016 provide additional evidence of the mediated relationship. The theoretical and real-world significance of these results are discussed.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document