Hogendoorn Bram
University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, 1018 WV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, Lange Houtstraat 19, 2511 CV The Hague, The Netherlands.
Eur J Popul. 2022 Jun 7;38(3):577-622. doi: 10.1007/s10680-022-09620-9. eCollection 2022 Aug.
Union dissolution is a critical event for women's living standards. Previous work has found that women in high-income unions lose more from union dissolution than women in low-income unions. This study proposes two mechanisms to explain this "convergence" in living standards. The compensation mechanism concerns the ability to compensate the loss of partner earnings with alternative sources of income, whereas the partner independence mechanism concerns how much women stand to lose from dissolution in the first place. To test these mechanisms, the author drew on a unique administrative dataset from the Netherlands, covering women who experienced dissolution within ten years after union formation ( = 57,960). A decomposition analysis showed that convergence was not driven by compensation: women from all income groups decreased their household size and re-partnered, women from low-income unions increased transfer income, and women from high-income unions increased personal earnings and decreased tax payments. Instead, convergence was driven by partner independence: women from lower-income unions depended relatively less on their partners because they relied more on transfer income prior to dissolution. These results demonstrate how partners' interdependence moderates the consequences of life events. The welfare state plays a crucial role in this process.
婚姻关系的解除对女性的生活水平来说是一个关键事件。先前的研究发现，高收入婚姻关系中的女性在婚姻关系解除时比低收入婚姻关系中的女性损失更多。本研究提出了两种机制来解释这种生活水平上的“趋同”现象。补偿机制涉及用其他收入来源弥补伴侣收入损失的能力，而伴侣独立机制则关注女性在婚姻关系解除时首先会损失多少。为了检验这些机制，作者利用了荷兰一个独特的行政数据集，该数据集涵盖了在婚姻关系形成后十年内经历婚姻关系解除的女性（n = 57,960）。分解分析表明，趋同并非由补偿驱动：所有收入群体的女性都缩小了家庭规模并重新建立了伴侣关系，低收入婚姻关系中的女性增加了转移收入，高收入婚姻关系中的女性增加了个人收入并减少了纳税额。相反，趋同是由伴侣独立驱动的：低收入婚姻关系中的女性相对较少依赖伴侣，因为她们在婚姻关系解除前更多地依赖转移收入。这些结果表明了伴侣之间的相互依赖如何缓和生活事件的后果。福利国家在这一过程中起着至关重要的作用。
