The Gender Wealth Gap in China

Meng Meng ()
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Meng Meng: Swedish Institute for Social Research, Postal: SOFI, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden

No 3/2024, SOFI Working Papers in Labour Economics from Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research

Abstract: I describe the gender wealth gap in China and explore the reasons behind its expansion in recent decades. The analysis suggests that a combination of China’s 2011 Marriage Law reform and soaring housing prices contribute to this widening gap. The reform shifts the division of housing property upon divorce from an equal (50-50) distribution to one contingent upon the names registered on the housing deed, thereby conferring a wealth advantage to husbands usually registered on the housing deed. Descriptive analysis reveals that men hold more ownership of housing and wealth than women. Specifically, I demonstrate that, post-reform, husbands possess 22% more housing property share than their wives, resulting in an increased housing wealth advantage of 44,884 CNY (equivalent to 7.9 times the annual income of wives in 2010). A dynamic difference-in-differences (DID) analysis indicates that although husbands’ share of property ownership initially surged and then declined post-reform, their proportion of housing wealth continued to increase and stabilize, primarily due to the rapid rise of housing prices. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis shows a greater property share gap among rural couples but a more pronounced wealth gap among urban couples, attributed to rising housing prices in urban areas. The study concludes with a discussion of how seemingly gender-neutral policies can have gendered economic effects by interacting with traditionally gendered societal norms.

Keywords: gender gap in property; gender wealth gap; property division (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2024-05-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-gen and nep-ure
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