目标:寡妇被证明会降低幸存配偶的经济福祉。然而,以前的研究主要集中在与收入相关的结果上,对财富的重要性不太关注,配偶死亡的过程性,和跨国差异。在这项研究中,我们评估了总数,住房,在11个欧洲国家的寡妇化过程中,非住房财富发生了变化。
方法:来自健康调查的个体固定效应回归和纵向数据,欧洲的老龄化和退休(SHARE)被用来估计家庭净总财富,住房财富,在11个欧洲国家,非住房财富在配偶死亡前三年和配偶死亡后六年或更长时间相对于丧偶前四年或更长时间发生了变化。
结果:在所有国家/地区,家庭净财富在整个丧偶过程中保持相对恒定,除了在奥地利,捷克共和国和波兰的财富下降,尤其是在死亡后的几年。然而,我们发现在丧偶过程中,住房财富下降,包括在配偶死亡之前,在我们样本中的大多数国家,特别是在奥地利,法国,丹麦,捷克共和国,和波兰。住房财富的下降通常不是由非住房财富的变化反映出来的,而是与离开住房所有权和缩小规模同时发生的。
结论:寡妇与较低的财富有关,尤其是住房财富,即使在失去配偶之前的几年。未来的研究应集中在裁定国家差异背后的机制上,并探索寡妇后财富损失对幸存配偶的福祉和代际转移的影响。
OBJECTIVE: Widowhood has been shown to decrease surviving spouses\' economic well-being. However, previous research has focused mostly on income-related outcomes, and has been less attentive to the importance of wealth, the processual nature of spousal death, and cross-national variation. In this study, we assessed how total, housing, and nonhousing wealth changes over the process of widowhood across 11 European countries.
METHODS: Individual fixed-effects regressions and longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe were used to estimate how household net total wealth, housing wealth, and nonhousing wealth changed 3 years prior and 6 or more years after spousal death relative to 4 or more years prior to widowhood in 11 European countries.
RESULTS: In all countries, household net wealth stayed relatively constant across the widowhood process, except for Austria, the Czech Republic, and Poland, where wealth declines were observed especially in the years following death. However, we found declines in housing wealth over the widowhood process, including prior to spousal death, across most countries in our sample, particularly in Austria, France, Denmark, the Czech Republic, and Poland. Declines in housing wealth were generally not reflected by changes in nonhousing wealth but coincided with leaving homeownership and downsizing.
CONCLUSIONS: Widowhood is associated with lower wealth, especially housing wealth, even in the years before spousal loss. Future research should focus on adjudicating the mechanisms behind country differences and exploring the implications of lost wealth following widowhood for surviving spouses\' well-being and intergenerational transfers.