Are Married Women Really Wealthier Than Unmarried Women? Evidence From Japan

Abstract

Using microdata from the Japanese Panel Survey of Consumers, this article examines the relationship between marriage and wealth among women. By exploiting unique data on personal wealth, it also assesses whether the wealth effect of marriage differs depending on whether wealth is measured as household or personal wealth, an issue that very few studies have examined. When wealth is measured as equivalized household net worth, on the assumption that married couples share household resources equally, marriage is found to contribute to women’s wealth holdings but only to their non­fi­nan­cial net worth; how­ever, the results show signs that mar­riage also con­trib­utes to women’s total net worth as marriage durations increase. By contrast, when wealth is measured as personal net worth based on the actual ownership of assets, marriage is found to be neg­a­tively and sig­nifi­­cantly asso­ci­ated with women’s wealth hold­ings. These find­ings under­score the fact that Jap­a­nese women are poten­tially in a finan­cially vulnerable position even after marriage, which is at least partly driven by married women’s career disruptions arising from their family responsibilities.