Will Women Save More than Men? A Theoretical Model of Savings and Marriage

26 Pages Posted: 10 Aug 2010

See all articles by Shoshana Amyra Grossbard

Shoshana Amyra Grossbard

San Diego State University - Department of Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Alfredo M. Pereira

College of William and Mary

Date Written: August 9, 2010

Abstract

This paper presents an inter-temporal model of individual behavior with uncertainty about marriage and divorce and which accommodates the possible presence of economies or diseconomies of scale from marriage. We show that a scenario of higher marriage rates and higher divorce rates will be associated with higher savings rates in the presence of economies of marriage and with lower savings rates in the presence of diseconomies of marriage. In the context of traditional gender roles, this implies higher saving rates by young men and lower saving rates by young women than in less traditional countries, the opposite being the case with saving rates of married women relative to those of married men. We establish the relevance of traditional gender roles and marital status to understanding cross-country variation in gender differentials in savings behavior.

Keywords: savings behavior, marriage, divorce, economics of marriage, gender roles

JEL Classification: E21, J12

Suggested Citation

Grossbard, Shoshana and Pereira, Alfredo M., Will Women Save More than Men? A Theoretical Model of Savings and Marriage (August 9, 2010). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 3146, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1655648 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1655648

Shoshana Grossbard (Contact Author)

San Diego State University - Department of Economics ( email )

5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182
United States

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

Alfredo M. Pereira

College of William and Mary ( email )

Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
United States
757-221-2431 (Phone)
757-221-2390 (Fax)

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