P M Lersch
Biographic Data
| ID | 58590 |
|---|---|
| NAME | P M Lersch |
| GIVEN NAMES | P M |
| FAMILY NAME | Lersch |
| SIGNATURE | LERSCH P M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cologne |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3863-8301 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 43 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 384 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 43 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1958 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Wealth and Family Formation
Existing research has demonstrated that wealthier individuals differ in family formation. Potential explanations draw on wealth’s use and symbolic value as well as the relative economic bar of family formation. This study examines the relationship between wealth and three family formation events in Germany: first cohabitation, marriage, and birth. Data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (2002–2017) are used with multi-state, competing-ris…
A cohabitation wealth premium for women and men
We examine the association between cohabitation and women's and men's wealth, closely considering the distinct regulatory and normative contexts in France and Eastern and Western Germany. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (2002-2017) and the French wealth survey Histoire de Vie et Patrimoine (2014/15-2020/21), we apply fixed-effects regression models to examine potential wealth advantages associated with cohabitat…
Assortative Mating and Wealth Inequalities Between and Within Households
Positive assortative mating may be a driver of wealth inequalities, but this relationship has not yet been examined. We investigate the association between assortative mating and wealth inequality within and between households drawing on data from the United States Survey of Income and Program Participation and measuring current, individual-level wealth for newly formed couples (N = 3936 couples). We find that partners positively sort according t…
Atypical work, financial assets, and asset poverty in Germany
This study investigates how atypical employment (i.e., part-time, temporary work, mini-jobs) affects workers' ability to accumulate financial assets and exposes them to asset poverty in Germany. Asset poverty occurs when household financial resources (e.g., bank deposits and stock equity) are insufficient to live at the income poverty line for three months. Previously, studies on labour market processes and wealth inequalities have been chiefly d…
Change in Personal Culture over the Life Course
Prior literature finds stability in personal culture, such as attitudes and values, in individuals' life courses using short-running panel data. This work has concluded that lasting change in personal culture is rare after formative early years. This conclusion conflicts with a growing body of evidence for changes in personal culture after significant life course transitions, drawing on long-running panel data. To integrate these conflicting find…
The long reach of class origin on financial investments and net worth
In this study, we argue that parents' class position may influence the type and timing of their offspring's investments in financial assets. These investments may facilitate net worth accumulation beyond direct transfers, contributing to the intergenerational reproduction of social positions. We test these expectations using retrospective life history and prospective panel data for 14 countries from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in …
Wealth in Couples
The assumption that economic resources are equally shared within households has been found to be untenable for income but is still often upheld for wealth. In this introduction to the special issue “Wealth in Couples”, we argue that within-household inequality in wealth is a pertinent and under-researched area that is ripe for development. To this end, we outline the relevance of wealth for demographic research, making the distinction between ind…
Who Opts Out? The Customisation of Marriage in the German Matrimonial Property Regime
This study examines the prevalence of marital contracts across marriage cohorts (1990–2019) in Germany. We further investigate the characteristics of spouses who signed a marital contract. Using cross-sectional data from the German Family Panel (pairfam, 2018/19), we employ complementary log–log and multinomial logistic regression models to predict the prevalence and the type of marital contracts. The results show that 5% of all married couples o…
My Wealth, (Y)Our Life Satisfaction? Sole and Joint Wealth Ownership and Life Satisfaction in Marriage
This study examines the money-subjective well-being nexus by studying the link between changes in jointly and solely (i.e. respondents’ own and their partner’s own) held gross wealth and changes in married individuals’ subjective well-being. Joint assets reflect norms of sharing responsibilities and resources. Solely held assets, in contrast, offer individual economic independence. Using wealth data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOE…
Gender and Changes in Household Wealth after the Dissolution of Marriage and Cohabitation in Germany
Objective To document how changes in household wealth following the dissolution of marriage and cohabitation differ by gender in Germany. Background Marital property regimes usually prescribe that both partners receive a share of the couple's wealth following a divorce. The dissolution of cohabiting unions is not governed by marital property regimes in most countries, including Germany. Because men, on average, legally own a larger share of coupl…
Distributive Justice in Marriage
Objective This study examines fairness perceptions of experimentally manipulated savings arrangements in couples (i.e., distribution of control and ownership of savings) to identify distributive justice principles in marriage. Background Theoretically, competing norms about individual ownership rights and autonomy (equity principle) and marital sharing (equality principle) in interaction with gender ideology (entitlement principle) may explain ho…
Panel Data in Research on Mobility and Migration
Panel data has become the gold standard for causal assessments of complex human behaviour in quantitative social science. The objective of this review is to examine and discuss how panel data and related methods contribute to the identification of causal relationships in spatial mobility research. We illustrate this by providing a succinct overview of recent progress in spatial mobility research, drawing on panel data. The review outlines researc…
Wealth of children from single-parent families
Families’ economic wealth is a resource that can provide children with crucial advantages early in their lives. Prior research identified substantial variation of wealth levels between different family types with children from single-parent families being most disadvantaged. The causes of this disadvantage, how much the disadvantage varies between children and how the non-resident parents’ wealth may potentially reduce the disadvantage remain unc…
Interdependencies in Mothers’ and Daughters’ Work-Family Life Course Trajectories
Women’s life courses underwent substantial changes in the family and work domains in the second half of the twentieth century. The associated fundamental changes in opportunity structures and values challenged the importance of families of origin for individual life courses, but two research strands suggest enduring within-family reproduction of women’s family behavior and work outcomes. We revisit this issue by studying two complementary types o…
The Variability of Occupational Attainment
This study develops and applies a framework for analyzing variability in individuals’ occupational prestige trajectories and changes in average variability between birth cohorts. It extends previous literature focused on typical patterns of intragenerational mobility over the life course to more fully examine intracohort differentiation. Analyses are based on rich life course data for men and women in West Germany born between 1919 and 1979 from …
Parental Separation during Childhood and Adult Children's Wealth
This study examines the association between parental separations during childhood and economic wealth of adult children. We provide a new test of this relationship and address two unresolved debates in the literature concerning (1) the pathways linking parental separation and adult children's wealth and (2) the relevance of the timing of exposure. We use data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey on 16,652 ind…
Cohort Changes in the Level and Dispersion of Gender Ideology after German Reunification
Modernization theorists' 'rising tide hypothesis' predicted the continuous spread of egalitarian gender ideologies across the globe. We revisit this assumption by studying reunified Germany, a country that did not follow a strict modernization pathway. The socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR) actively fostered female employment and systematically promoted egalitarian ideologies before reunification with West Germany and the resulting incorp…
The Accumulation of Wealth in Marriage
This study examines the accumulation of personal wealth of husbands and wives and investigates the development of within-couple wealth inequalities over time in marriage. Going beyond previous research that mostly studied the marriage wealth premium using household-level wealth data and that conceptualized marriage as an instantaneous transition with uniform consequences over time, we argue that entry into marriage is a gendered life-course event…
Family formation, parental background and young adults’ first entry into homeownership in Britain and Germany
Although previous research shows that family dynamics and parental socio-economic status influence the timing of young adults’ first entry into homeownership, much less is known about how the role of family factors may vary across countries with different housing systems. In this paper, we use panel survey data from Britain and Germany to compare how family life course careers and parental socio-economic background influence young adults’ initial…
Fewer Siblings, More Wealth? Sibship Size and Wealth Attainment
Changes in gender role attitudes following couples' residential relocations
Residential relocations of couple households are associated with increases in objective gender inequality within families in paid and unpaid work. Little is known about how couplesâ relocations affect subjective outcomes such as attitudes
The Effect of Regional Gender-Role Attitudes on Female Labour Supply
Despite considerable variation in gender-role attitudes across contexts and its claimed influence on female labour supply, studies provide little support for a contextual gender-role attitude effect. In this study, we reassess the contextual gender-role attitude effect on female labour supply because earlier studies are hampered by two shortcomings: (a) they are cross-nationally comparative, which makes it difficult to distinguish contextual atti…
Birth cohort, ageing and gender ideology
Homeownership, saving and financial wealth
The finding that homeowners own more non-housing wealth than tenants is well known. We examine whether the higher financial wealth of owners can be partly explained with increases in saving when becoming a homeowner in two distinct institutional contexts. Using longitudinal data for the UK (British Household Panel Survey) and Germany (Socio-Economic Panel Study), we find that homeowners save more and are financially wealthier than tenants. Howeve…
Coresidential Union Entry and Changes in Commuting Times of Women and Men
Women, particularly those in coresidential unions, have previously been found to spend less time commuting to work than men. This gender gap among couples' commuting has been linked to inferior labor market opportunities for women. How gender differences in commuting emerge on entering coresidence is underresearched, however. This study examines changes in commuting times at the transition from singlehood to coresidential unions using the British…
Change in Personal Culture over the Life Course
Prior literature finds stability in personal culture, such as attitudes and values, in individuals' life courses using short-running panel data. This work has concluded that lasting change in personal culture is rare after formative early years. This conclusion conflicts with a growing body of evidence for changes in personal culture after significant life course transitions, drawing on long-running panel data. To integrate these conflicting find…
Intergenerational transmission of homeownership in Europe
Falling Out of Love and Down the Housing Ladder
We analyse the interdependence between marital separation and home ownership. Past research showed that separations reduce the likelihood of owning a home. We add to this literature by allowing partners to be aware of the risk of separation in our empirical analysis. We analyse (i) residential moves to owned and rented dwellings and (ii) the selection processes between ownership and separation. We also assess differences by gender and for two dif…
The Marriage Wealth Premium Revisited
This study examines the association between marriage and economic wealth of women and men. Going beyond previous research that focused on household wealth, I examine personal wealth, which allows identifying gender disparities in the association between marriage and wealth. Using unique data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (2002, 2007, and 2012), I apply random-effects and fixed-effects regression models to test my expectations. I find…
Employment Insecurity and First-Time Homeownership
Many young people in Europe face employment insecurity, a condition which will likely persist following the global economic downturn that started with the financial crisis of 2007–08. Previous research has shown that employment insecurity impedes the entry into homeownership. It is, however, less clear how this delayed entry into homeownership is filtered by contextual arrangements at the country level. Using longitudinal data from the EU Statist…
Place Stratification or Spatial Assimilation? Neighbourhood Quality Changes after Residential Mobility for Migrants in Germany
Neighbourhoods provide unequal resources and opportunities. Past research has shown that migrants are less able to move to more resourceful neighbourhoods. For Germany, cross-sectional evidence shows that migrants live in worse neighbourhoods on average, but no longitudinal analysis of changes in neighbourhood quality after residential mobility has been conducted. The present paper closes this gap and tests the place stratification model and the …
The Variability of Occupational Attainment
This study develops and applies a framework for analyzing variability in individuals’ occupational prestige trajectories and changes in average variability between birth cohorts. It extends previous literature focused on typical patterns of intragenerational mobility over the life course to more fully examine intracohort differentiation. Analyses are based on rich life course data for men and women in West Germany born between 1919 and 1979 from …
The Accumulation of Wealth in Marriage
This study examines the accumulation of personal wealth of husbands and wives and investigates the development of within-couple wealth inequalities over time in marriage. Going beyond previous research that mostly studied the marriage wealth premium using household-level wealth data and that conceptualized marriage as an instantaneous transition with uniform consequences over time, we argue that entry into marriage is a gendered life-course event…
The distribution of housing wealth in 16 European countries
Housing wealth is the largest source of household wealth, but we know little about the distribution of housing wealth and how institutions have shaped this distribution. Subsidies for homeownership, privatisation of social housing and mortgage finance liberalisation are likely to have influenced the distribution of housing wealth in recent decades. To examine their impact, we describe housing wealth inequalities across occupational classes for tw…
Cohort Changes in the Level and Dispersion of Gender Ideology after German Reunification
Modernization theorists' 'rising tide hypothesis' predicted the continuous spread of egalitarian gender ideologies across the globe. We revisit this assumption by studying reunified Germany, a country that did not follow a strict modernization pathway. The socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR) actively fostered female employment and systematically promoted egalitarian ideologies before reunification with West Germany and the resulting incorp…
Parenthood, Gender, and Personal Wealth
This study examines the association between parenthood and the growth of personal wealth of women and men over time. We argue that parenthood creates unique restrictions and opportunity structures for mothers and fathers in terms of personal wealth accumulation. Using rich data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (2002, 2007, 2012; N = 28,650 individuals), we apply random-effects growth curve models to test our expectations. We find that m…
Family formation, parental background and young adults’ first entry into homeownership in Britain and Germany
Although previous research shows that family dynamics and parental socio-economic status influence the timing of young adults’ first entry into homeownership, much less is known about how the role of family factors may vary across countries with different housing systems. In this paper, we use panel survey data from Britain and Germany to compare how family life course careers and parental socio-economic background influence young adults’ initial…
Individual Wealth and Subjective Financial Well-being in Marriage
Economic wealth is mostly assumed to be a household-level resource that is pooled by spouses in married couples. Using comprehensive data on the individual wealth of both spouses in married couples from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (N = 13,623 individuals), the author tests this assumption. To this end, the associations between individuals' wealth and their spouses' wealth with individuals' subjective financial well-being are examined. R…
Family migration in a cross-national perspective
Migration rates of dual-earner couples are lower than those of male-breadwinner couples. We revisit this issue using a cross-national comparative perspective and examine heterogeneity in the role of female employment in couple relocations. We propose a the
Family Migration and Subsequent Employment
A substantial body of evidence shows gender asymmetry in family migration, with women more likely to leave employment following migration than men. Gender ideologies, although yet not tested directly, have been proposed as one determinant for these asymmetries. Analyzing longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey (1991-2008) on 3,333 dual-earner couples with dyadic multilevel regression models, the author examined whether the assoc…
The Effect of Regional Gender-Role Attitudes on Female Labour Supply
Despite considerable variation in gender-role attitudes across contexts and its claimed influence on female labour supply, studies provide little support for a contextual gender-role attitude effect. In this study, we reassess the contextual gender-role attitude effect on female labour supply because earlier studies are hampered by two shortcomings: (a) they are cross-nationally comparative, which makes it difficult to distinguish contextual atti…
Homeownership, saving and financial wealth
The finding that homeowners own more non-housing wealth than tenants is well known. We examine whether the higher financial wealth of owners can be partly explained with increases in saving when becoming a homeowner in two distinct institutional contexts. Using longitudinal data for the UK (British Household Panel Survey) and Germany (Socio-Economic Panel Study), we find that homeowners save more and are financially wealthier than tenants. Howeve…
My house or our home? Transitions into sole home ownership in British couples
It is mostly assumed that both partners in couples own their homes jointly. We challenge this assumption and examine the individual ownership configurations within couples in Britain. We argue that the individual legal status as an owner will determine to
Birth cohort, ageing and gender ideology
Interdependencies in Mothers’ and Daughters’ Work-Family Life Course Trajectories
Women’s life courses underwent substantial changes in the family and work domains in the second half of the twentieth century. The associated fundamental changes in opportunity structures and values challenged the importance of families of origin for individual life courses, but two research strands suggest enduring within-family reproduction of women’s family behavior and work outcomes. We revisit this issue by studying two complementary types o…
My Wealth, (Y)Our Life Satisfaction? Sole and Joint Wealth Ownership and Life Satisfaction in Marriage
This study examines the money-subjective well-being nexus by studying the link between changes in jointly and solely (i.e. respondents’ own and their partner’s own) held gross wealth and changes in married individuals’ subjective well-being. Joint assets reflect norms of sharing responsibilities and resources. Solely held assets, in contrast, offer individual economic independence. Using wealth data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOE…
Fewer Siblings, More Wealth? Sibship Size and Wealth Attainment
Changes in gender role attitudes following couples' residential relocations
Residential relocations of couple households are associated with increases in objective gender inequality within families in paid and unpaid work. Little is known about how couplesâ relocations affect subjective outcomes such as attitudes
Planning Until Death Do Us Part
Positive economic outcomes of marriage are often explained with a higher future orientation of married individuals who are assumed to plan their finances for a longer period than the nonmarried. Using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (2001-2014; N = 4,819 individuals), the authors provide the first longitudinal test of whether individuals change their financial planning horizons when they change their partne…
The long reach of class origin on financial investments and net worth
In this study, we argue that parents' class position may influence the type and timing of their offspring's investments in financial assets. These investments may facilitate net worth accumulation beyond direct transfers, contributing to the intergenerational reproduction of social positions. We test these expectations using retrospective life history and prospective panel data for 14 countries from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in …
M glichkeiten und Grenzen der Testdiagnostik
Der Mensch Als Soziales Wesen
Residential Relocations and Their Consequences
Place Stratification or Spatial Assimilation? Neighbourhood Quality Changes after Residential Mobility for Migrants in Germany
Neighbourhoods provide unequal resources and opportunities. Past research has shown that migrants are less able to move to more resourceful neighbourhoods. For Germany, cross-sectional evidence shows that migrants live in worse neighbourhoods on average, but no longitudinal analysis of changes in neighbourhood quality after residential mobility has been conducted. The present paper closes this gap and tests the place stratification model and the …
Geburten und die Wohnraumversorgung von Familien
Geburten erhöhen den Raumbedarf von Familien und können zu einer Verschlechterung der Wohnsituation von Familien führen, wenn diese ihren Wohnraum nicht ausreichend vergrößern können. Es wird untersucht, wann und wie Familien ihren Wohnraum im Zeitverlauf anpassen und welche Folgen dies für die Wohnraumversorgung, d. h. die gewichtete Zahl der Wohnräume pro Kopf hat. Es werden Daten des Sozio-oekonomischen Panels (1984-2011) mit Hilfe von Panelre…
Falling Out of Love and Down the Housing Ladder
We analyse the interdependence between marital separation and home ownership. Past research showed that separations reduce the likelihood of owning a home. We add to this literature by allowing partners to be aware of the risk of separation in our empirical analysis. We analyse (i) residential moves to owned and rented dwellings and (ii) the selection processes between ownership and separation. We also assess differences by gender and for two dif…
Intergenerational transmission of homeownership in Europe
Employment Insecurity and First-Time Homeownership
Many young people in Europe face employment insecurity, a condition which will likely persist following the global economic downturn that started with the financial crisis of 2007–08. Previous research has shown that employment insecurity impedes the entry into homeownership. It is, however, less clear how this delayed entry into homeownership is filtered by contextual arrangements at the country level. Using longitudinal data from the EU Statist…
The distribution of housing wealth in 16 European countries
Housing wealth is the largest source of household wealth, but we know little about the distribution of housing wealth and how institutions have shaped this distribution. Subsidies for homeownership, privatisation of social housing and mortgage finance liberalisation are likely to have influenced the distribution of housing wealth in recent decades. To examine their impact, we describe housing wealth inequalities across occupational classes for tw…
My house or our home? Transitions into sole home ownership in British couples
It is mostly assumed that both partners in couples own their homes jointly. We challenge this assumption and examine the individual ownership configurations within couples in Britain. We argue that the individual legal status as an owner will determine to
Family Migration and Subsequent Employment
A substantial body of evidence shows gender asymmetry in family migration, with women more likely to leave employment following migration than men. Gender ideologies, although yet not tested directly, have been proposed as one determinant for these asymmetries. Analyzing longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey (1991-2008) on 3,333 dual-earner couples with dyadic multilevel regression models, the author examined whether the assoc…
The Marriage Wealth Premium Revisited
This study examines the association between marriage and economic wealth of women and men. Going beyond previous research that focused on household wealth, I examine personal wealth, which allows identifying gender disparities in the association between marriage and wealth. Using unique data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (2002, 2007, and 2012), I apply random-effects and fixed-effects regression models to test my expectations. I find…
Family migration in a cross-national perspective
Migration rates of dual-earner couples are lower than those of male-breadwinner couples. We revisit this issue using a cross-national comparative perspective and examine heterogeneity in the role of female employment in couple relocations. We propose a the
The shadow of future homeownership
Previous research has shown that labour supply - especially of partnered women with supplemental incomes - is positively associated with homeownership status. This literature is advanced by testing whether wanting to move into homeownership before the actual entry into homeownership affects individuals' labour supply in couples. The empirical analysis is based on longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey (1991-2008). Fixed-effects…
Individual Wealth and Subjective Financial Well-being in Marriage
Economic wealth is mostly assumed to be a household-level resource that is pooled by spouses in married couples. Using comprehensive data on the individual wealth of both spouses in married couples from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (N = 13,623 individuals), the author tests this assumption. To this end, the associations between individuals' wealth and their spouses' wealth with individuals' subjective financial well-being are examined. R…
Parenthood, Gender, and Personal Wealth
This study examines the association between parenthood and the growth of personal wealth of women and men over time. We argue that parenthood creates unique restrictions and opportunity structures for mothers and fathers in terms of personal wealth accumulation. Using rich data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (2002, 2007, 2012; N = 28,650 individuals), we apply random-effects growth curve models to test our expectations. We find that m…
Homeownership, saving and financial wealth
The finding that homeowners own more non-housing wealth than tenants is well known. We examine whether the higher financial wealth of owners can be partly explained with increases in saving when becoming a homeowner in two distinct institutional contexts. Using longitudinal data for the UK (British Household Panel Survey) and Germany (Socio-Economic Panel Study), we find that homeowners save more and are financially wealthier than tenants. Howeve…
Coresidential Union Entry and Changes in Commuting Times of Women and Men
Women, particularly those in coresidential unions, have previously been found to spend less time commuting to work than men. This gender gap among couples' commuting has been linked to inferior labor market opportunities for women. How gender differences in commuting emerge on entering coresidence is underresearched, however. This study examines changes in commuting times at the transition from singlehood to coresidential unions using the British…
Long-term Health Consequences of Adverse Labor Market Conditions at Time of Leaving Education
Using longitudinal survey data from the Socio-Economic Panel Study ( N = 3,003 respondents with 22,165 individual-year observations) and exploiting temporal and regional variation in state-level unemployment rates in West Germany, we explore differences in trajectories of individuals' self-rated health over a period of up to 23 years after leaving education under different regional labor market conditions. We find evidence for immediate positive …
Planning Until Death Do Us Part
Positive economic outcomes of marriage are often explained with a higher future orientation of married individuals who are assumed to plan their finances for a longer period than the nonmarried. Using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (2001-2014; N = 4,819 individuals), the authors provide the first longitudinal test of whether individuals change their financial planning horizons when they change their partne…
Family formation, parental background and young adults’ first entry into homeownership in Britain and Germany
Although previous research shows that family dynamics and parental socio-economic status influence the timing of young adults’ first entry into homeownership, much less is known about how the role of family factors may vary across countries with different housing systems. In this paper, we use panel survey data from Britain and Germany to compare how family life course careers and parental socio-economic background influence young adults’ initial…
Fewer Siblings, More Wealth? Sibship Size and Wealth Attainment
Changes in gender role attitudes following couples' residential relocations
Residential relocations of couple households are associated with increases in objective gender inequality within families in paid and unpaid work. Little is known about how couplesâ relocations affect subjective outcomes such as attitudes
The Effect of Regional Gender-Role Attitudes on Female Labour Supply
Despite considerable variation in gender-role attitudes across contexts and its claimed influence on female labour supply, studies provide little support for a contextual gender-role attitude effect. In this study, we reassess the contextual gender-role attitude effect on female labour supply because earlier studies are hampered by two shortcomings: (a) they are cross-nationally comparative, which makes it difficult to distinguish contextual atti…
Birth cohort, ageing and gender ideology
Economics (35 works) · Demographic economics (31 works) · Sociology (26 works) · Psychology (23 works) · Demography (21 works) · Family Dynamics and Relationships (16 works) · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics (16 works) · Labour economics (16 works) · Political science (15 works) · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism (14 works)