Social Stratification, Welfare, and Social Policy Seminar, at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI)

Michaela Kreyenfeld from Hertie School of Governance presents "Earnings Trajectories after Divorce: The Legacies of the Earner Model during Marriage"

This is an in-person only event.

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Abstract

Divorce marks the legal endpoint of a marital union. While divorce may increasingly be seen as a ‘clean break’, the past marital history of the couple may  nevertheless shape their present conditions. In particular, there may be a legacy of a highly gendered division of labour during marriage that may affect the ex-spouses’ earning trajectories beyond the date of divorce. Using register data from the German Pension Fund, we examine the earning trajectories of hetero-sexual couples who filed for a divorce in 2013 (24,616 men and 24,616 women). Using fixed-effects and matching techniques, we compare the earning trajectories of divorcees with those of a control group of married persons in the period two years before and after divorce. In particular, we examine how the past earner model during marriage shapes future earning trajectories. Our results show that, on average, a divorced woman in a male breadwinner constellation sees an increase in her earnings after divorce, while the earnings of her male ex-spouse declines. Nevertheless, large gender differences in earnings persist. Two years after their separation, a divorced woman who had been in a male breadwinner constellation before, was earning 66% less than average and 72% less than her ex-spouse. We discuss our findings against the background of recent policy reforms in Germany, which assume that ex-partners should be economically ‘self-reliant’ after divorce.