Pension Wealth and the Gender Wealth Gap

Karla Cordova (), Markus Grabka and Eva Sierminska

No 15563, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We examine the gender wealth gap with a focus on pension wealth and statutory pension rights. By taking into account employment characteristics of women and men, we are able to identify the extent to which the redistributive effect of pension rights reduces the gender wealth gap. The data for our analysis come from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), one of the few surveys collecting information on wealth and pension entitlements at the individual level. Pension wealth data are available in the SOEP for 2012 only. While the relative raw gender wealth gap is about 35% (or 31,000 euros) when analysing the standard measure of net worth, it shrinks to 28% when pension wealth is added. This reduction is due to redistributive elements such as caregiver credits provided through the statutory pension scheme. Results of a recentered influence functions (RIF) decomposition show that pension wealth reduces the gap substantially in the lower half of the distribution. At the 90th percentile, the gender wealth gap in net worth and in augmented wealth remains more stable at roughly 27-30%.

Keywords: Germany; pension entitlements; gender wealth gap; redistribution; SOEP (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 H55 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 56 pages
Date: 2022-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-eur and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published - published in: European Journal of Population , 2022, 38, 755 - 810

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Journal Article: Pension Wealth and the Gender Wealth Gap (2022)
Working Paper: Pension Wealth and the Gender Wealth Gap (2022)
Working Paper: Pension Wealth and the Gender Wealth Gap (2021)
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