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Divorce and economic wellbeing. A life course perspective on the interplay of work-family lives in West Germany and Sweden

  • This cumulative dissertation investigates the relationship between divorce and economic wellbeing from a life course perspective in West Germany and Sweden. The analyses are based on large-scale register data from the German public pension and the Swedish population registers. The first paper studies mothers’ earnings trajectories from one year before their first childbirth until ten years after in both countries. Separation negatively affects mothers’ earnings trajectories in Sweden, while it positively affects them in West Germany. In Sweden, although the earnings of separated mothers lag behind those of partnered mothers, both groups can surpass their pre-birth earnings, which is not the case for either separated or partnered mothers from western Germany. The second paper investigates how divorce relates to retirement trajectories, defined as the monthly insurance history from age 50 to age 65 of women and men in West Germany. Divorcees are more likely than married to retire through unstable retirement trajectories characterised by receipt of reduced-earnings-capacity pensions and unemployment. Whereas the relationship between divorce and retirement trajectories seems to be overall adverse for men, it is more ambiguous for women. Some divorced women are also more likely than married women to retire through a stable high-income trajectory. The third paper compares the gendered consequences of divorce on public pension income in both countries. Divorced women from West Germany have significantly higher public pension incomes than married women. The German ‘divorce splitting’ mechanism increases women’s and decreases men’s pension incomes, which contributes to equalising their public pension incomes. In Sweden, women show comparable pension incomes across marital status, although divorced women have slightly lower pension incomes, while divorced men receive approximately 26 % less pension income than married men. The dissertation illustrates that family and work life are intertwined, that they unfold gradually across the life course, and that the welfare state context shapes the interrelation of divorce and economic wellbeing: The event of divorce (and separation) not only directly impacts employment biographies of mothers but is, in a long-term perspective, related to retirement trajectories of women and men and their public pension incomes.

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Metadaten
Document Type:Doctoral Thesis
Language:English
Author(s):Sarah Schmauk
Advisor:Michaela Kreyenfeld, Anette Eva Fasang, Ann-Zofie Duvander
Hertie Collections (Serial Number):Dissertations submitted to the Hertie School (05/2023)
Publication year:2023
Publishing Institution:Hertie School
Granting Institution:Hertie School
Thesis date:2023/02/24
Number pages:191
DOI:https://doi.org/10.48462/opus4-5049
Release Date:2023/08/04
Notes:
Shelf mark: 2023D005 + 2023D005+1
Notes:
List of publications

Schmauk, S., & Kridahl, L. (2024). Who receives most? Gendered consequences of divorce on public pension income in West Germany and Sweden. Ageing and Society, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X23000703

Schmauk, S. (2024). Pathways to retirement in West Germany: Does divorce matter? Advances in Life Course Research, 60, 100595. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2024.100595
Hertie School Research:Publications PhD Researchers
Licence of document (German):Creative Commons - CC BY - 4.0 International
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