Accumulation of Personal Wealth in Couples: Individual Resources and Gender Inequalities in Intimate Relationships

这个项目调查了异性伴侣中个人的个人财富。财富是一种经济资源，它提供了许多超越收入的优势。特别是，需要与家庭财富区分开来的个人财富，对于在一生中提供经济保障越来越重要。这是不太稳定的亲密关系和福利国家结构调整的结果。之前的研究已经证实，女性在夫妻中拥有的个人财富大多较少。然而，对造成夫妻间性别不平等的个人财富积累过程的彻底调查却没有。为了填补这一空白，拟议中的项目回答了以下主要的研究问题：是什么塑造了夫妻个人财富的积累和不平等？通过回答这个问题，该项目的第一个目标是了解夫妻关系如何影响女性和男性的个人财富积累。其次，它的目的是提高人们对随着时间的推移夫妻之间产生经济不平等的了解。第三，它的目的是找出缓和夫妻内部财富积累的背景条件。该项目建立在家庭内部资源分配理论的基础上，并结合了生命过程的观点。主要的工作假设是，众所周知的家庭层面的积累过程已经对男女伴侣的个人财富产生了性别影响，但迄今鲜为人知。还假设这些程序因国家不同而不同，例如由于不同的税收制度。为了验证这一点，我们从多个角度考察了个人财富的积累，并通过观察不同国家和地区不同夫妇之间的个人情况来检验这一点。首先，使用了来自澳大利亚、德国、英国和美国的定量、二次和纵向调查数据。这些数据是使用增长和变化的经验模型以及捕捉传记复杂性的模型进行比较分析的。其次，对所有四个国家的夫妇对个人财富的主观态度进行了析因调查实验，对这些分析进行了修正。这些原始数据用多水平模型进行了分析。将这两个分析部分的结果结合起来，就可以全面地回答主要的研究问题。因此，这一及时和相关的项目有助于更好地了解男女因贫富差距而生活机会不平等的问题。

This project examines personal wealth of individuals within heterosexual couples. Wealth is an economic resource that provides many advantages that go beyond income. Particularly, personal wealth, which needs to be distinguished from household wealth, is increasingly important to provide economic security over the life course. This is a consequence of less stable intimate relationships and restructuring welfare states. Previous research has established that women mostly own less personal wealth in couples. Thorough examinations of the processes underlying personal wealth accumulation that create gender inequalities within couples are missing, however. To fill this gap the proposed project answers the following overarching research question: What shapes the accumulation of and inequalities in personal wealth in couples? By answering this question, the project's first aim is to understand how being in a couple affects personal wealth accumulation for women and men. Second, it aims to improve on the knowledge about the generation of economic inequalities within couples over time. Third, it aims to identify contextual conditions that moderate the within-couple accumulation of wealth. The project builds on theories of the intra-household distribution of resources in combination with a life course perspective. The main working hypothesis is that well-known processes of accumulation at the household-level have gendered, and so far little understood, effects for personal wealth of partnered women and men. It is also hypothesised that these processes differ across countries, e.g. due to divergent tax systems. To test this, the accumulation of personal wealth is examined from multiple perspectives and by observing individuals within couples over time and in diverse countries. First, quantitative, secondary and longitudinal survey data from Australia, Germany, the UK and US are used. The data are comparatively analysed using empirical models of growth and change and models that capture biographical complexities. Second, these analyses are amended with factorial survey experiments on the subjective attitudes towards personal wealth in couples in all four country cases. These primary data are analysed with multilevel models. The integration of results from both analytical parts allows for comprehensive answers to the overarching research question. Thereby, this timely and relevant project contributes to a better understanding of women's and men's unequal life chances due to wealth disparities.