How Does “The Share of the Pie” Matter? European Empirics on the Financial Satisfaction of Partners

This paper aims to extend the knowledge of the relationship between within-couple income distribution and partners’ financial satisfaction, using data from the EU-SILC 2013 for 15 European countries, for the first time including data from Eastern Europe. We find that men’s preferences typically concur with the “traditional” male-breadwinner family model, as husband’s satisfaction decreases with a larger female share of household income. In contrast, in nine countries, men’s satisfaction actually increases at the point where they are substantially out-earned by their wives, but this concerns only a small fraction of couples. Women in half of the countries tend to prefer a single-income scheme with either partner being the breadwinner, but again we stress that this matters mainly in extreme situations, while a tendency towards egoistic preferences favouring a larger personal share of household income predominates otherwise. We find that women prefer the traditional male-breadwinner model in only four countries.