Intra‐Couple Wealth Inequality in South Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACT Although there is increasing interest in wealth as a measure of well‐being, very few studies measure the wealth gap between men and women, and even fewer examine the gender wealth gap within couples. One of the main reasons for this is that data on wealth are collected at the household level in most surveys. In this paper, we examine wealth inequality within couples using individual‐level data on assets and debts matched on spouses from the South African National Income Dynamics Survey of 2017. We find substantial intra‐couple wealth inequality in South Africa, with women's share of total couple net worth 0.39 on average. We examine a range of demographic, labour market and household correlates of intra‐couple wealth gaps and find that the stronger the woman's relative position in the couple with respect to age, education, financial literacy, income and employment status, the higher her share of couple wealth. In contrast, children in the household are associated with lower relative wealth for the woman in the couple. We reflect on the implications of our findings for women's well‐being and suggest possible avenues for future research and data collection.