The gender wealth gap in Europe: A comparative study using a model averaging methodology

Merike Kukk, Jaanika Merikyll () and Tairi Room
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Jaanika Meriküll

No wp2020-7, Bank of Estonia Working Papers from Bank of Estonia

Abstract: There is abundant evidence on the gender wage gaps across countries, but much less is known about the gender differences in personal wealth. This paper provides comparative estimates of the gender wealth gaps for 21 European countries, employing data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey. A common problem for studies focusing on this topic is that the data on wealth are usually provided at the household level and not at the individual level. This means it is only possible to estimate gender wealth gaps for single-person households. To overcome this constraint, we propose a novel approach using a model averaging methodology to predict individualised wealth data for multi-person households. We find that the gender wealth gaps tend to be in favour of men in the whole population, especially when estimated at the top of the wealth distribution. In contrast, the estimated gaps in the subset of single-person households tend to be statistically insignificant. The country-level gender wealth gaps are correlated with overall wealth inequality but not with gender gaps in pay and employment.

Keywords: gender gap; imputation; model averaging; wealth distribution; inequality; intra-household allocation of wealth; household finance; Europe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 G51 J16 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-04-08, Revised 2021-04-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-gen and nep-tra
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