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Journal of Financial Intermediation Vol. 36 2018

Gender difference and intra-household economic power in mortgage signing order

Sumit Agarwal1; Richard Green2; Eric Rosenblatt3; Vincent Yao4; Jian Zhang5

1 Georgetown University · 2 University of Southern California · 3 Fannie Mae, United States · 4 Georgia State University · 5 Hong Kong Baptist University

Abstract

This paper adopts a novel approach to examine the roles of gender difference and intra-household economic power in mortgage signing order. We develop an “economic power” index based on relative economic power within the same-sex couple households. We then use this measure along with gender identity and other factors to explain signing order in different-gender couples. Our results suggest that, while pure economic power explains much of the observed signing order, gender difference plays an important role. Analysis exploiting regional variation reveals that gender difference in signing order is greater in states with a larger gender wage gap and red states whose residents predominantly vote for the Republican.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfi.2018.01.001
Volume
36
Pages
86-100
Language
en
Sources
semanticscholar openalex crossref

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