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Title: Who Wears the Pants? Gender Identity Norms and Intra-Household Financial Decision Making

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2016

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Abstract: Analyzing microdata covering more than 30 million U.S. households, I document that families with a financially sophisticated husband are more likely to participate in the stock market than those with a wife of equal financial sophistication. This pattern is not driven by gender differences in risk preference or selection effects, but can be explained by gender norms. The baseline effect is attenuated among individuals brought up by working mothers, but becomes stronger among descendants of pre-industrial societies in which women specialized in activities within the home and households with a husband born and raised in a southern state. In a controlled experiment, I show that gender identity has a causal impact by constraining womens influence over intra-household financial decision making. These findings suggest that gender identity norms can have real consequences for household financial well-being.

Url: http://www.dakefinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Da_JMP_11192016.pdf

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Authors: Ke, Da

Publisher: University of Miami

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Family and Marriage, Gender

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