The Cohabitation Wealth Premium in Context: Comparing France and Eastern and Western Germany

Abstract

This study examines the association between cohabitation and personal wealth of women and men, closely considering the distinct legal and cultural contexts of cohabitation in France and Eastern and Western Germany. Using high-quality longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (2002-2017) and the French wealth survey Histoire de Vie et Patrimoine (2014/15-2020/21), we apply fixed-effects regression models to examine potential wealth advantages associated with cohabitation entry in different legal and cultural contexts. We find that cohabitation is positively associated with women’s and men’s wealth across the contexts. Evidence for premiums is overall more substantial for women than for men. For France, we find that entering a Pacs (i.e., registered cohabitation) is associated with an additional premium beyond the (unregistered) cohabitation premium. Overall, our results suggest that the legal treatment of unmarried cohabitation is more consequential for wealth accumulation than the cultural context.