IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp15563.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Pension Wealth and the Gender Wealth Gap

Author

Listed:
  • Cordova, Karla

    (Pomona College)

  • Grabka, Markus M.

    (DIW Berlin)

  • Sierminska, Eva

    (Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER))

Abstract

We examine the gender wealth gap with a focus on pension wealth and statutory pension rights. By taking into account employment characteristics of women and men, we are able to identify the extent to which the redistributive effect of pension rights reduces the gender wealth gap. The data for our analysis come from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), one of the few surveys collecting information on wealth and pension entitlements at the individual level. Pension wealth data are available in the SOEP for 2012 only. While the relative raw gender wealth gap is about 35% (or 31,000 euros) when analysing the standard measure of net worth, it shrinks to 28% when pension wealth is added. This reduction is due to redistributive elements such as caregiver credits provided through the statutory pension scheme. Results of a recentered influence functions (RIF) decomposition show that pension wealth reduces the gap substantially in the lower half of the distribution. At the 90th percentile, the gender wealth gap in net worth and in augmented wealth remains more stable at roughly 27-30%.

Suggested Citation

  • Cordova, Karla & Grabka, Markus M. & Sierminska, Eva, 2022. "Pension Wealth and the Gender Wealth Gap," IZA Discussion Papers 15563, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15563
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp15563.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2008. "Planning and Financial Literacy: How Do Women Fare?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 413-417, May.
    2. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2017. "The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(3), pages 789-865, September.
    3. Oaxaca, Ronald, 1973. "Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 14(3), pages 693-709, October.
    4. Alberto F. Alesina & Francesca Lotti & Paolo Emilio Mistrulli, 2013. "Do Women Pay More For Credit? Evidence From Italy," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 11, pages 45-66, January.
    5. Sierminska, Eva & Piazzalunga, Daniela & Grabka, Markus M., 2018. "Transitioning towards more equality? Wealth gender differences and the changing role of explanatory factors over time," GLO Discussion Paper Series 252, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    6. Alexis Yamokoski & Lisa Keister, 2006. "The Wealth Of Single Women: Marital Status And Parenthood In The Asset Accumulation Of Young Baby Boomers In The United States," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1-2), pages 167-194.
    7. Christian Westermeier & Markus M. Grabka, 2015. "Significant Statistical Uncertainty over Share of High Net Worth Households," DIW Economic Bulletin, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 5(14/15), pages 210-219.
    8. Eva M. Sierminska & Joachim R. Frick & Markus M. Grabka, 2010. "Examining the gender wealth gap," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 62(4), pages 669-690, October.
    9. Timm Bönke & Markus M. Grabka & Carsten Schröder & Edward N. Wolff & Lennard Zyska, 2019. "The Joint Distribution of Net Worth and Pension Wealth in Germany," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(4), pages 834-871, December.
    10. Jean Gardiner & Andrew M Robinson & Fathi Fakhfakh, 2016. "Exploring the private pension gender gap and occupation in later working life," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 30(4), pages 687-707, August.
    11. Davies, James B. & Shorrocks, Anthony F., 2000. "The distribution of wealth," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 11, pages 605-675, Elsevier.
    12. Sergio Firpo & Nicole M. Fortin & Thomas Lemieux, 2009. "Unconditional Quantile Regressions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(3), pages 953-973, May.
    13. Annekatrin Schrenker & Aline Zucco, 2020. "The Gender Pay Gap Begins to Increase Sharply at Age of 30," DIW Weekly Report, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 10(10), pages 75-82.
    14. Carole Bonnet & Benoît Rapoport, 2020. "Is There a Child Penalty in Pensions? The Role of Caregiver Credits in the French Retirement System," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 36(1), pages 27-52, March.
    15. Carsten Schröder & Charlotte Bartels & Markus M. Grabka & Martin Kroh & Rainer Siegers, 2018. "A Novel Sampling Strategy for Surveying High-Worth Individuals - An Application Using the Socio-Economic Panel," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 978, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    16. Philipp M. Lersch, 2017. "The Marriage Wealth Premium Revisited: Gender Disparities and Within-Individual Changes in Personal Wealth in Germany," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(3), pages 961-983, June.
    17. Markus Grabka & Jan Marcus & Eva Sierminska, 2015. "Wealth distribution within couples," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 459-486, September.
    18. Almenberg, Johan & Dreber, Anna, 2015. "Gender, stock market participation and financial literacy," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 140-142.
    19. Carsten Schröder & Charlotte Bartels & Markus M. Grabka & Johannes König & Martin Kroh & Rainer Siegers, 2020. "A Novel Sampling Strategy for Surveying High Net‐Worth Individuals—A Pretest Application Using the Socio‐Economic Panel," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 66(4), pages 825-849, December.
    20. Florence Jaumotte, 2004. "Labour Force Participation of Women: Empirical Evidence on The Role of Policy and Other Determinants in OECD Countries," OECD Economic Studies, OECD Publishing, vol. 2003(2), pages 51-108.
    21. Goebel Jan & Grabka Markus M. & Liebig Stefan & Kroh Martin & Richter David & Schröder Carsten & Schupp Jürgen, 2019. "The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 239(2), pages 345-360, April.
    22. Sunden, Annika E & Surette, Brian J, 1998. "Gender Differences in the Allocation of Assets in Retirement Savings Plans," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(2), pages 207-211, May.
    23. 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.
    24. Deborah J. Anderson & Melissa Binder & Kate Krause, 2002. "The Motherhood Wage Penalty: Which Mothers Pay It and Why?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 354-358, May.
    25. Siobhan Austen & Therese Jefferson & Rachel Ong, 2014. "The Gender Gap in Financial Security: What We Know and Don't Know about Australian Households," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 25-52, July.
    26. Karsten Hank & Michaela R. Kreyenfeld, 2000. "Does the availability of childcare influence the employment of mothers? Findings from western Germany," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2000-003, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    27. Alan S. Blinder, 1973. "Wage Discrimination: Reduced Form and Structural Estimates," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 8(4), pages 436-455.
    28. Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham & Kelly Shue, 2020. "The Gender Gap in Housing Returns," NBER Working Papers 26914, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    29. Tairi Room & Orsolya Soosaar, 2021. "The gender gap in pension wealth in Europe: Evidence from twenty countries," Bank of Estonia Working Papers wp2020-8, Bank of Estonia, revised 08 Apr 2021.
    30. Ursina Kuhn, 2020. "Augmented wealth in Switzerland: the influence of pension wealth on wealth inequality," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 156(1), pages 1-16, December.
    31. Erin Ruel & Robert Hauser, 2013. "Explaining the Gender Wealth Gap," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(4), pages 1155-1176, August.
    32. Edward N. Wolff, 2015. "U.S. Pensions in the 2000s: The Lost Decade?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(4), pages 599-629, December.
    33. Marco Biagetti & Sergio Scicchitano, 2011. "A note on the gender wage gap among managerial positions using a counterfactual decomposition approach: sticky floor or glass ceiling?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(10), pages 939-943.
    34. Christian Westermeier & Markus M. Grabka & Björn Jotzo & Anika Rasner, 2017. "Veränderung der Erwerbs- und Familienbiografien lässt einen Rückgang des Gender-Pension-Gap erwarten," DIW Wochenbericht, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 84(12), pages 235-243.
    35. Markus M. Grabka, 2014. "Private Net Worth in Eastern and Western Germany Only Converging Slowly," DIW Economic Bulletin, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 4(11), pages 25-32.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gornick, Janet & Sierminska, Eva, 2021. "Wealth Accumulation and Retirement Preparedness in Cross-National Perspective: A Gendered Analysis of Outcomes among Single Adults," IZA Policy Papers 181, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Philipp M. Lersch & Emanuela Struffolino & Agnese Vitali, 2022. "Wealth in Couples: Introduction to the Special Issue," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(4), pages 623-641, October.
    3. Marc Fleurbaey & Domenico Moramarco & Vito Peragine, "undated". "Measuring inequality and welfare when some inequalities matter more than others," Working Papers ecineq-, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    4. Nicolas Frémeaux & Marion Leturcq, 2022. "Wealth Accumulation and the Gender Wealth Gap Across Couples’ Legal Statuses and Matrimonial Property Regimes in France," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(4), pages 643-679, October.
    5. Javier Olivera & Yadiraah Iparraguirre, 2022. "Gender gap in pension savings: Evidence from Peru’s individual capitalization system∗," Documentos de Trabajo / Working Papers 2022-513, Departamento de Economía - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
    6. Bartels, Charlotte & Sierminska, Eva & Schröder, Carsten, 2024. "Wealth Creators or Inheritors? Unpacking the Gender Wealth Gap from Bottom to Top and Young to Old," IZA Discussion Papers 17324, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Javier Olivera & Yadiraah Iparraguirre, 2022. "The Gender Gap in Pension Savings: Evidence from Peru's Individual Capitalization System," LISER Working Paper Series 2022-06, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    8. Ines Heck & Anna Hornykewycz & Jakob Kapeller & Rafael Wildauer, 2024. "Vermögensverteilung in Österreich: eine Analyse auf Basis des HFCS 2021/22," Working Paper Reihe der AK Wien - Materialien zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 255, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik.
    9. Javier Olivera & Yadiraah Iparraguirre, 2022. "The Gender Gap in Pension Savings," Working Papers 624, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    10. Miriam Rehm & Alyssa Schneebaum & Barbara Schuster, 2022. "Intra-Couple Wealth Inequality: What’s Socio-Demographics Got to Do with it?," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(4), pages 681-720, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sierminska, Eva & Piazzalunga, Daniela & Grabka, Markus M., 2018. "Transitioning towards more equality? Wealth gender differences and the changing role of explanatory factors over time," GLO Discussion Paper Series 252, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    2. Waitkus, Nora & Minkus, Lara, 2021. "Investigating the gender wealth gap across occupational classes," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108206, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Jaanika Meriküll & Merike Kukk & Tairi Rõõm, 2021. "What explains the gender gap in wealth? Evidence from administrative data," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 501-547, June.
    4. Jaanika Meriküll & Merike Kukk & Tairi Rõõm, 2021. "What explains the gender gap in wealth? Evidence from administrative data," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 501-547, June.
    5. Anglade, Boaz & Useche, Pilar & Deere, Carmen Diana, 2017. "Decomposing the Gender Wealth Gap in Ecuador," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 19-31.
    6. Markus Grabka & Jan Marcus & Eva Sierminska, 2015. "Wealth distribution within couples," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 459-486, September.
    7. Nolan, Anne & Whelan, Adele & McGuinness, Seamus & Maître, Bertrand, 2019. "Gender, pensions and income in retirement," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS87.
    8. Miriam Rehm & Alyssa Schneebaum & Barbara Schuster, 2022. "Intra-Couple Wealth Inequality: What’s Socio-Demographics Got to Do with it?," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(4), pages 681-720, October.
    9. GRABKA Markus & MARCUS Jan & SIERMINSKA Eva, 2013. "Wealth distribution within couples and financial decision making," LISER Working Paper Series 2013-02, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    10. Rehm, Miriam & Schneebaum, Alyssa & Schuster, Barbara, 2022. "Intra-couple wealth inequality: What's demographics got to do with it?," ifso working paper series 22, University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute for Socioeconomics (ifso).
    11. Rohan Best & Noura Saba, 2021. "Quantifying Australia’s Gender Superannuation Gap," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 97(318), pages 410-423, September.
    12. Julia Groiß & Alyssa Schneebaum & Barbara Schuster, 2018. "Vermögensunterschiede nach Geschlecht in Österreich," Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft - WuG, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik, vol. 44(1), pages 45-72.
    13. Nathan Blascak & Anna Tranfaglia, 2021. "Decomposing Gender Differences in Bankcard Credit Limits," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2021-072, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    14. Tabea Bucher-Koenen & Rob J. Alessie & Annamaria Lusardi & Maarten van Rooij, 2021. "Fearless Woman: Financial Literacy and Stock Market Participation," NBER Working Papers 28723, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Glaubitz, Rick & Harnack-Eber, Astrid & Wetter, Miriam, 2022. "The gender gap in lifetime earnings: The role of parenthood," Discussion Papers 2022/3, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    16. Alyssa Schneebaum & Miriam Rehm & Katharina Mader & Katarina Hollan, 2018. "The Gender Wealth Gap Across European Countries," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(2), pages 295-331, June.
    17. Julia Groiß & Alsyssa Schneebaum & Barbara Schuster, 2017. "Vermögensunterschiede nach Geschlecht in Österreich und Deutschland: Eine Analyse auf der Personenebene," Working Paper Reihe der AK Wien - Materialien zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 168, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik.
    18. Katie Meara & Francesco Pastore & Allan Webster, 2020. "The gender pay gap in the USA: a matching study," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 271-305, January.
    19. Bedaso, Fenet Jima, 2024. "Occupational Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap: Evidence from Ethiopia," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1393, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    20. Kaya Ezgi, 2021. "Gender wage gap across the distribution: What is the role of within- and between-firm effects?," IZA Journal of Development and Migration, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-49, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Germany; pension entitlements; gender wealth gap; redistribution; SOEP;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15563. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.