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Examining the Gender Wealth Gap in Germany

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Author Info
Eva M. Sierminska
Joachim R. Frick
Markus M. Grabka

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Abstract

Welfare-oriented analyses of economic outcome measures such as income and wealth generally rest on the assumption of pooled and equally shared resources among all household members. Yet the lack of individual-level data hampers the distribution of income and wealth within the ousehold context. Based on unique individual-level wealth data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), this paper challenges the implicit assumption of internal redistribution by considering an alternative definition of the aggregation unit and by controlling its effect on distribution and inequality analysis. We find empirical evidence for a significant gender wealth gap of about 30,000 euros in Germany, which amounts to almost 50,000 euros for married partners. Decomposition analyses reveal that this gap is mostly driven by differences in characteristics between men and women, the most important factor being the individual¿s own income and labor market experience. However, this finding holds only for the upper part of the wealth distribution and can be shown only with non-parametric decomposition methods due to the mean orientation of the parametric Oaxaca-Blinder technique. Differences in the lower part of the wealth distribution appear to be driven mostly by the wealth function, i.e., the way in which women transform their characteristics into wealth.

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Paper provided by DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) in its series SOEPpapers with number 115.

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Length: 44 p.
Date of creation: 2008
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Handle: RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp115

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Keywords: Wealth gap; wealth inequality; gender; SOEP;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
D69 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Other
I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - General Welfare

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  1. SOEP based publications
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  1. Joachim R. Frick & Markus M. Grabka & Jan Marcus, 2007. "Editing and Multiple Imputation of Item-Non-Response in the 2002 Wealth Module of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)," SOEPpapers 18, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). [Downloadable!]
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  2. Lucie Schmidt & Purvi Sevak, 2006. "Gender, marriage, and asset accumulation in the United States," Feminist Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 12(1-2), pages 139-166, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Blau, Francine D & Kahn, Lawrence M, 1996. "International Differences in Male Wage Inequality: Institutions versus Market Forces," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(4), pages 791-836, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Haddad, Lawrence & Kanbur, Ravi, 1990. "How Serious Is the Neglect of Intra-Household Inequality?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(402), pages 866-81, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Blau, Francine D & Kahn, Lawrence M, 1997. "Swimming Upstream: Trends in the Gender Wage Differential in 1980s," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(1), pages 1-42, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Shelley A. Phipps & Peter S. Burton, 1995. "Sharing within Families: Implications for the Measurement of Poverty among Individuals in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 28(1), pages 177-204, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Robert Barsky & John Bound & Kerwin Charles & Joseph Lupton, 2001. "Accounting for the Black-White Wealth Gap: A Nonparametric Approach," NBER Working Papers 8466, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Dinardo, J. & Fortin, N.M. & Lemieux, T., 1994. "Labor Market Institutions and the Distribution of Wages, 1973-1992: A Semiparametric Approach," Cahiers de recherche 9406, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
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  9. June O'Neill, 2003. "The Gender Gap in Wages, circa 2000," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 309-314, May. [Downloadable!]
  10. Gert G. Wagner & Joachim R. Frick & Jürgen Schupp, 2007. "The German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP): Scope, Evolution and Enhancements," SOEPpapers 1, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). [Downloadable!]
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  11. John Gibson & Trinh Le & Grant Scobie, 2006. "Household bargaining over wealth and the adequacy of women's retirement incomes in New Zealand," Feminist Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 12(1-2), pages 221-246, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Carmen Diana Deere & Cheryl R. Doss, 2006. "The gender asset gap: What do we know and why does it matter?," Feminist Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 12(1-2), pages 1-50, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Kimball, Miles S, 1990. "Precautionary Saving in the Small and in the Large," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(1), pages 53-73, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. Woolley, Frances R, 1993. "The Feminist Challenge to Neoclassical Economics," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(4), pages 485-500, December.
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  16. Suen, Wing, 1997. "Decomposing Wage Residuals: Unmeasured Skill or Statistical Artifact?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(3), pages 555-66, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Hildebrand, Vincent, 2004. "The Wealth of Mexican Americans," IZA Discussion Papers 1150, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  18. Lena Edlund & Wojciech Kopczuk, 2007. "Women, Wealth and Mobility," NBER Working Papers 13162, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  19. John Gibson & Melanie Morton & Steven Stillman, 2007. "What Explains the Wealth Gap Between Immigrants and the New Zealand Born?," Working Papers 07_12, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research. [Downloadable!]
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  20. Zagorsky, Jay L, 1999. "Young Baby Boomers' Wealth," Review of Income and Wealth, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45(2), pages 135-56, June.
  21. Lupton, J. & Smith, J.P., 1999. "Marriage, Assets, and Savings," Papers 99-12, RAND - Labor and Population Program.
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  22. Juhn, Chinhui & Murphy, Kevin M & Pierce, Brooks, 1993. "Wage Inequality and the Rise in Returns to Skill," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(3), pages 410-42, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  23. Regina Riphahn & Oliver Serfling, 2005. "Item non-response on income and wealth questions," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 521-538, 09. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  24. Joachim R. Frick & Markus M. Grabka & Eva M. Sierminska, 2007. "Representative Wealth Data for Germany from the German SOEP: The Impact of Methodological Decisions around Imputation and the Choice of the Aggregation Unit," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 672, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
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