Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

submittedVersion

Publication Date

9-2022

Abstract

Previous research typically examined homeownership inequality across individuals or households, overlooking the intrahousehold allocation of homeownership. Using couple-level data of the 2016 China Family Panel Studies, our study addresses the gap by examining the bargaining over homeownership between husbands and wives in China. Descriptive results reveal a large gender gap in homeownership: only about one-quarter of couples listed the wife as an owner on the Housing Ownership Certificate, whereas about 92% listed the husband. The gender gap in ownership, however, has narrowed among couples married after 2000. Multivariate analyses show that economic autonomy, relative resources, housing purchase conditions, and modernization significantly increase wives’ homeownership, but with varying degrees among rural and urban wives. Women’s own socioeconomic status is more important for acquiring homeownership for urban wives, yet rural wives’ homeownership depends more on the resource exchange with their husbands. Given the stratifying effects of homeownership, our findings of the unequal distribution of homeownership between husbands and wives underscore how family dynamics reproduce gender inequality.

Keywords

Home ownership, male and female differences, urban and rural differences, gender inequality, China

Discipline

Asian Studies | Inequality and Stratification | Real Estate | Sociology of Culture

Research Areas

Sociology

Publication

Chinese Sociological Review

Volume

54

Issue

4

First Page

342

Last Page

373

ISSN

2162-0555

Identifier

10.1080/21620555.2021.1998771

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1080/21620555.2021.1998771

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