Error message
This presentation examines whether marriage helps women accumulate wealth in Japan. If wealth is measured in terms of household wealth, marriage is found to generally help women accumulate wealth. This marriage-wealth premium seems to be generated largely through the higher incomes associated with marriage. By contrast, if wealth is measured in terms of personal wealth, marriage is found to be negatively associated with women’s wealth for the majority of the sample, largely because women in Japan own a relatively small share of household wealth. These findings underscore the fact that women in Japan are potentially in a financially vulnerable position even after they marry.
Video of Yoko Niimi's presentation on 12/3/18 at East-West Center:
Yoko Niimi is Research Associate Professor at the Asian Growth Research Institute and concurrently Visiting Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Economics, Kyushu University, in Kyushu, Japan. Before assuming her current position, she worked at the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Her fields of research are household economics as well as development economics, and she is particularly interested in topics related to household saving, intergenerational transfers, long-term care, and population aging.
This presentation examines whether marriage helps women accumulate wealth in Japan. If wealth is measured in terms of household wealth, marriage is found to generally help women accumulate wealth. This marriage-wealth premium seems to be generated largely through the higher incomes associated with marriage. By contrast, if wealth is measured in terms of personal wealth, marriage is found to be negatively associated with women’s wealth for the majority of the sample, largely because women in Japan own a relatively small share of household wealth. These findings underscore the fact that women in Japan are potentially in a financially vulnerable position even after they marry.
Video of Yoko Niimi's presentation on 12/3/18 at East-West Center:
Yoko Niimi is Research Associate Professor at the Asian Growth Research Institute and concurrently Visiting Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Economics, Kyushu University, in Kyushu, Japan. Before assuming her current position, she worked at the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Her fields of research are household economics as well as development economics, and she is particularly interested in topics related to household saving, intergenerational transfers, long-term care, and population aging.
