Gender and Changes in Household Wealth after the Dissolution of Marriage and Cohabitation in Germany

Boertien, Diederik; Lersch, Philipp M.

doi:10.1111/jomf.12705

Cited by 21 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Couples' wealth accumulation processes are strongly impaired by union dissolution (Boertien & Lersch, 2020). The economic consequences of separation last several years and fundamentally disrupt investments in joint assets and respective redistribution processes within couples.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dyadic employment biographies and within‐couple wealth inequality in Britain and Western Germany

Nutz

Gritti

2021

J of Marriage and Family

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Objective This study examines how the interplay of both partners' employment biographies is associated with the within‐couple gender wealth gap in later life in Britain and Western Germany, including married couples born between the 1920s and 1960s. Background Although it is well‐known that women own less personal wealth than their male partners on average, variation in the gender wealth gap across partners' employment constellations and contexts remains unaddressed. Following the life course paradigm, this study theorizes how individual wealth accumulation, within‐couple redistribution processes, and institutional arrangements shape the within‐couple gender wealth gap in later life. Method The analyses rely on retrospective employment and prospective survey data from Britain (UKHLS; Wave 8; 2016–2018) and Germany (SOEP, 2017). Sequence and cluster analyses detect patterns of dyadic employment biographies (ages 20–55) among different‐sex couples in their first marriage and OLS regressions associate them with the within‐couple gender wealth gap. Results The within‐couple gender wealth gap to the disadvantage of women existed in Britain and Western Germany, with considerably larger inequality in Germany. German male breadwinner couples, particularly those with longer periods of female homemaking and part‐time employment, showed higher levels of wealth inequality. Whereas dyadic employment biographies were not clearly associated with the gender wealth gap in Britain, stable arrangements of female full‐time employment reduced the gap in Germany. Conclusion A similar division of labor throughout the life course can result in different levels of the within‐couple gender wealth gap in later life across country contexts, particularly depending on the housing system.

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Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dyadic employment biographies and within‐couple wealth inequality in Britain and Western Germany

Nutz

Gritti

2021

J of Marriage and Family

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“…Our study has implications for the understanding of the dynamics of polarization in the society. Prior research has stressed the far-ranging consequences of union dissolution, such as the widening gap in wealth accumulation (Boertien and Lersch 2021). Also, as with growing stratification in partnerships along the socio-economic dimension, this study raises the possibility that partnership sorting amplifies differences in the distribution of resources, which are affected by the ability to affect the public sphere.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Sleeping with the enemy. Partners’ political attitudes and risk of separation

Arpino¹,

Nallo²

2022

Preprint

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Does politics conflict with love? We aim at answering this question by examining the effect on union dissolution of partners’ (mis)match on political preferences, defined as self-reported closeness, intention to vote, or vote for a specific party. Previous studies argued that partners’ heterogamy may increase risk of union dissolution because of differences among partners in lifestyles, attitudes, and beliefs, and/or because of disapproval from family and community members. We posit that similar arguments can apply to political heterogamy and test the effect of this new heterogamy dimension using UK data from the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) and the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS). The data offer a unique opportunity to disentangle the role of heterogamy by political preferences from the effects of heterogamies in other domains (e.g., ethnicity and religiosity) and from that of other partners’ characteristics, while also covering a long period of time (from 1991 to 2021). The data also allow to implement a more specific analysis about the referendum on UK’s permanence in the European Union (known as the Brexit referendum). We find a positive effect of political preferences heterogamy on union dissolution. In addition, diverging opinions on the Brexit referendum is associated to higher chances of partnership break-up.

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“…Some anthropological research argues that similar opportunity effects arise because men are less discriminatory in partner choice and more positively inclined towards promiscuous behaviour, increasing proclivity and preparedness to transitions between unions (See review by Borgerhoff Mulder, 2020). Others argue that the adversity brought about by union dissolution is often found to be larger for women than for men (Boertien & Lersch, 2021;Poortman, 2007) and, concomitantly, the gains from marriage may be smaller for women than for men (see McDonald, 2020 for a recent review and assessment). Poortman (2007) shows that prior union dissolution decreases the age-specific hazard of (re)-partnering to a greater extent for women in the Netherlands, and argues that union dissolution is more consequential for women regarding subsequent partner behaviour in general.…”

Section: Re-partneringmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Sex Differences in Re-partnering for Sex Differences in Post-separation Fertility by Age 48: A Cohort Perspective

Andersson¹

2022

Preprint

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Individuals increasingly transition through more than one cohabiting relationship during their reproductive years. Therefore, births often occur after the dissolution of a first union. Previous research suggests that men and women differ in their re-partnering patterns, and has often found a re-partnering advantage for men. This study analysed the role of sex differences in re-partnering for sex differences in total fertility achieved after first union dissolution. We use Finnish register data to separately document all marital and cohabiting unions and all births which occur after the first union dissolution of four full birth cohorts up to age 48 for men and women. We decompose the sex difference in the summed fertility occurring after the first union dissolution up to age 48 into two parts: one rate component owing to sex differences in birth rates and a compositional component owing to sex differences in the share in re-partnered unions. On average, the post-dissolution fertility of women was higher than that of men. Women see a re-partnering advantage at early ages, while men have a re-partnering advantage at later ages. Tertiary educated men who dissolve a first childbearing union have higher post-dissolution fertility than their female counterparts and, for this group, a male ‘re-partnering advantage’ across the life course accounts for a substantial part of this sex difference.

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Gender and Changes in Household Wealth after the Dissolution of Marriage and Cohabitation in Germany

Cited by 21 publications

References 33 publications

Dyadic employment biographies and within‐couple wealth inequality in Britain and Western Germany

Dyadic employment biographies and within‐couple wealth inequality in Britain and Western Germany

Sleeping with the enemy. Partners’ political attitudes and risk of separation

The Role of Sex Differences in Re-partnering for Sex Differences in Post-separation Fertility by Age 48: A Cohort Perspective

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