Wealth Holdings and Gender

1
Wealth Holdings and Gender

• Janet Gornick
• LIS and Baruch College / CUNY (USA)
•  
• Comments for the conference on
• Construction and Usage of Comparable Microdata
  on Household Wealth The Luxembourg Wealth Study
• S.A.Di.Ba., Perugia / 27-29 January 2005

2
Six papers reviewed

• five concern disparities in various types of
  wealth by gender and/or family type
• one paper concerns relationship between
  intra-household gender differentials and couples
  asset accumulation

3
Papers reviewed (United States)

• Lucie Schmidt Purvi Sevak. "Gender, Marriage,
  and Asset Accumulation in the US." Uses Panel
  Study of Income Dynamics (PSID).
• Lisa Mohanty. "The Effect of Private Transfers
  on Women's Wealth." Uses Panel Study of Income
  Dynamics (PSID).
• Stanley Sedo Sherrie Kossoudji. "Rooms of
  One's Own Home Ownership as Wealth Accumulation
  in the US." Uses Survey of Income and Program
  Participation (SIPP).
• Alexis Yamokoski Lisa Keister. "The Wealth of
  Single Females An Exploration into the Asset
  Accumulation Dynamics of Young Baby Boomers."
  Uses National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY).

4
Papers reviewed (United Kingdom, New Zealand)

•  Tracey Warren. "Moving Beyond the Gender Wealth
  Gap On Gender, Class, and Ethnically-Related
  Wealth in the UK." Uses Family Resources Survey
  (FRS).
• John Gibson, Trinh Le Grant Scobie. "Household
  Bargaining over Wealth and the Adequacy of
  Women's Retirement Incomes in New Zealand." Uses
  Household and Saving Survey (HSS).
•  

5
Some questions addressed in prior literature

• wealth disparities by gender likelihood
  magnitude of various asset holdings, portfolio
  composition
• origins of gender wealth disparities (wage and
  income gaps different credit opportunities
  investment behavior effects of parenthood)
• micro- consequences (e.g., childrens health,
  probability of violence, marital stability)
• macro- consequences (e.g., effects of rising
  share of female-headed households on wealth
  distribution)
• link between gender differentials within couples
  and asset accumulation
• role of public policies and institutions

6
Approaches used in these papers to assess gender
disparities

• conduct all analyses at household-level and
  assess gender via family type/headship, i.e.,
  compare households headed by single women to
  those headed by single men and by married couples
  further disaggregation by parental and marital
  status
• Approach also common in income poverty
  research.
• conduct analyses at individual-level and assign
  some share of all shared assets to each person
  within a couple
• conduct analyses at individual-level and focus on
  those wealth components, such as pension wealth,
  that are (largely) discernable for individuals

7
Highlights from empirical results presented in
these papers

• gender gaps in wealth are smaller in younger
  cohorts
• child support payments substantially raise
  divorced womens current wealth
• female-headed households with children are (very)
  asset poor
• gender gaps in the probability of home ownership
  are much larger than gaps in home value or home
  equity
• pension holdings differ substantially by gender
• womens intra-household bargaining power is
  negatively associated with couples net wealth
  (in New Zealand)

8
Lessons for Eva? To enable gender-related
research

• harvest as much as possible at the
  individual-level and make it accessible to users
  (if its meaningful!)
• harvest as much as possible on household / family
  structure and composition
• likewise -- the more variables on employment,
  income, and consumption, the better (especially
  to understand the impact of children on womens
  wealth accumulation)
• what else?