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Women’s Labour Market Attachment and the Gender Wealth Gap

  • Eva Sierminska ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Daniela Piazzalunga ORCID logo and Markus Grabka
Published/Copyright: July 17, 2024

Abstract

This article examines the evolution of the gender wealth gap in Germany during the first decade of the XXI century. This period is characterized by an increase in labour supply of women and change in occupational structure due to numerous reforms undertaken by the government. We use the Firpo, Fortin, Lemieux detailed decomposition technique throughout the wealth distribution to identify the main factors explaining the gap over time. Findings indicate that an increase in the labour market participation of women and the resulting changes in the occupational structure are accompanied by positive changes in women’s wealth accumulation, which reduce the gender wealth gap. The role of permanent income decreases due to a reduction both in the gender difference in average permanent income and in gender differences in its returns. There remain substantial differences in the way women and men accumulate wealth. Policy interventions to further reduce the gap are discussed.


Corresponding author: Eva Sierminska, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), Campus Belval, 11, Porte de Sciences, 4366, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg; Institute of Economics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland; IZA, Trento, Italy; and DIW Berlin, Berlin, Germany, E-mail:

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Supplementary Material

This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/bejeap-2023-0259).


Received: 2023-07-21
Accepted: 2024-06-20
Published Online: 2024-07-17

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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