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Disagreement in Partners’ Reports of Financial Difficulty

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  • Robert Breunig
  • Deborah Cobb-Clark
  • Xiaodong Gong
  • Danielle Venn

Abstract

We use unique data in which both partners report about household finances to demonstrate that there is often disagreement about whether the household has experienced financial difficulty in the past year. Four alternative explanations for this disagreement are tested using the data. The results indicate that disagreement may be related to the severity of the underlying material hardship rather than to gender differences or individual (as opposed to household) views of financial difficulty. We find only weak evidence that information asymmetries explain couple disagreement about financial difficulty. This implies that standard surveys which collect information about the household’s financial position from a representative individual may fail to completely characterize the nature of material hardship.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Breunig & Deborah Cobb-Clark & Xiaodong Gong & Danielle Venn, 2006. "Disagreement in Partners’ Reports of Financial Difficulty," CEPR Discussion Papers 520, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    • Handle: RePEc:auu:dpaper:520
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    File URL: https://www.cbe.anu.edu.au/researchpapers/CEPR/DP520.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Fenaba R. Addo & Xing Zhang, 2020. "Debt Concordance and Relationship Quality: A Couple-Level Analysis," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 405-423, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Household Finances; Survey Methodology; Material Hardship;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C42 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Survey Methods
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

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