Inequalities and the individualization of wealth

Nicolas Frémeaux and Marion Leturcq

Working Papers from French Institute for Demographic Studies

Abstract: We document the individualization of wealth in France between 1998 and 2015, using precise survey data on the property titles of assets. It is characterized by an increase in the share of wealth which is individualized by spouses (vs. jointly owned) and by an increase in the share of wealth held by singles. We show that the usual measures of wealth inequality, which allocate the same share of household wealth to each spouse or partner, overestimate the share of wealth held by women. This results in an underestimation of both the level and the growth of a) wealth inequality between individuals and b) the gender wealth gap. We argue for better consideration of the ownership status and intra-household distribution of wealth in the measurement of wealth inequality.

Keywords: Wealth; Individualization; Wealth inequality; Gender wealth gap; Matrimonial property regime; France; PARITE HOMME - FEMME / GENDER PARITY; PATRIMOINE / WEALTH; MARIAGE / MARRIAGE; COUPLE / COUPLE; FRANCE / FRANCE (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 1-18
Date: 2020-04-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-hme
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (34)

Published in Journal of Public Economics

Downloads: (external link)
https://archined.ined.fr/download/publication/AXCA ... ba21582710727857.pdf Deposited file (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Inequalities and the individualization of wealth (2020)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:idg:wpaper:axca6-hz5wbfh-x_vjty

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104145

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from French Institute for Demographic Studies
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Karin Sohler ().