In collaboration with J. Treas. In this research, J. Treas and I have focused on money management by contemporary couples in 23 different countries. In this paper, based on data made available by the Zentralarchiv fuer Empirische Sozialforschung, we address the effect of divorce and cohabitation, as behavioral and attitudinal variables, on money management. We also include a measure of marital instrumentality and of approval of women working. We compare couples who pool everything from those who keep some or all funds separate.
Analysis shows that people who cohabited or who divorced keep money separate more often.
It is interesting to note that in low cohabitation countries, the odds of separate accounts are three times higher for cohabitors than for non-cohabitors, while they are only 2 times higher in high cohabitation countries. Further analyzes on these effects are considered. This paper was written for the conference on durable relationships, Utrecht, June 23-26 1997. Interaction of these effects with gender is addressed. The results indicate that the sexual behavior of older brothers has a significant influence on the timing of younger siblings' initiation of sexual intercourse.