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Wealth Accumulation and the Gender Wealth Gap Across Couples’ Legal Statuses and Matrimonial Property Regimes in France

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  • Nicolas Frémeaux

    (LEMMA - Université Paris 2)

  • Marion Leturcq

    (Institut National d’Etudes Démographiques (INED))

Abstract

This paper examines wealth accumulation among couple-headed households and investigates changes in within-household inequality over time and across couple statuses. Going beyond previous research that mostly studies wealth accumulation within marriages by comparing married with unmarried individuals, we consider the legal statuses of couples (cohabitation, civil union, and marriage) and property regimes (community and separate property). We apply multivariate regression analysis to high-quality longitudinal data from the French wealth survey (2015–2018) and find no differences in net worth accumulation between couples’ legal statuses when property regimes are not accounted for. However, couples with a separate property regime accumulate more wealth than couples with a community property regime, and married couples with a separate property regime drive this association. Our results show that the gender wealth gap is larger for couples with a separate property regime, but it is partially compensated by accumulated wealth. Our results highlight the importance of legal statuses and property regimes in explaining the dynamics of between- and within-household inequality in France, specifically within a context of increasingly diversified marital trajectories.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eurpop:v:38:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s10680-022-09632-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10680-022-09632-5
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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. Carole Bonnet & Enrica Maria Martino & Benoît Rapoport & Anne Solaz, 2023. "Wealth inequalities among seniors: the role of marital histories across cohorts," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 815-853, September.
    3. Agnese Vitali & Romina Fraboni, 2022. "Pooling of Wealth in Marriage: The Role of Premarital Cohabitation," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(4), pages 721-754, October.
    4. Nicole Kapelle & Theresa Nutz & Daria Tisch & Manuel Schechtl & Philipp M. Lersch & Emanuela Struffolino, 2022. "My Wealth, (Y)Our Life Satisfaction? Sole and Joint Wealth Ownership and Life Satisfaction in Marriage," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(4), pages 811-834, October.
    5. 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.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wealth inequality; Gender wealth gap; Marriage; Property regime; Civil union; Unmarried cohabitation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

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