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The Effects of Marriage and Divorce on Financial Investments: Learning to Love or Hate Risk?

Author

Listed:
  • Charlotte Christiansen

    (School of Economics and Management, Aarhus University and CREATES)

  • Juanna Schröter Joensen

    (Stockholm School of Economics)

  • Jesper Rangvid

    (Department of Finance, Copenhagen Business School)

Abstract

We investigate how changes in marital status affect the decision to take on financial risks. As an alternative to the traditional approach of comparing different groups of investors (men and women) at each point in time, we use a difference-in-differences estimation strategy to compare how the same individual invests at different points in time (before and after marriage or divorce) compared to a benchmark investor, thereby controlling for unobserved systematic differences as well as various background characteristics. We investigate both the propensity to participate in the stock market and the propensity to invest in more risky portfolios. We find that marriage acts as a financial risk-reducer for men and as a financial risk-increaser for women, in the sense that women increase the fraction of wealth invested in stocks after marriage and decrease it after divorce, whereas men show the opposite investment behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Charlotte Christiansen & Juanna Schröter Joensen & Jesper Rangvid, 2010. "The Effects of Marriage and Divorce on Financial Investments: Learning to Love or Hate Risk?," CREATES Research Papers 2010-57, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    • Handle: RePEc:aah:create:2010-57
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    File URL: https://repec.econ.au.dk/repec/creates/rp/10/rp10_57.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laurent E. Calvet & John Y. Campbell & Paolo Sodini, 2007. "Down or Out: Assessing the Welfare Costs of Household Investment Mistakes," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(5), pages 707-747, October.
    2. Laurent E. Calvet & John Y. Campbell & Paolo Sodini, 2009. "Fight or Flight? Portfolio Rebalancing by Individual Investors," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(1), pages 301-348.
    3. 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.
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    Cited by:

    1. Atella, Vincenzo & Brunetti, Marianna & Maestas, Nicole, 2012. "Household portfolio choices, health status and health care systems: A cross-country analysis based on SHARE," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 1320-1335.
    2. Hibbert, Ann Marie & Lawrence, Edward R. & Prakash, Arun J., 2013. "Does knowledge of finance mitigate the gender difference in financial risk-aversion?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 140-152.
    3. Nataliya Barasinska & Dorothea Schäfer, 2018. "Gender role asymmetry and stock market participation – evidence from four European household surveys," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(12), pages 1026-1046, August.
    4. Vu, Thi-Hong-Phuong & Li, Chu-Shiu & Liu, Chwen-Chi, 2021. "Effects of the financial crisis on household financial risky assets holdings: Empirical evidence from Europe," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 342-358.
    5. Johnston, David W. & Kassenboehmer, Sonja C. & Shields, Michael A., 2016. "Financial decision-making in the household: Exploring the importance of survey respondent, health, cognitive ability and personality," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 132(PA), pages 42-61.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender; Marriage; Divorce; Difference-in-differences; Stock market participation; Portfolio choice.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance

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