Joint pot or separate purses? Unpacking the cohabitation-marriage gap in income pooling across Europe

Objective: This study examines the cohabitation-marriage gap in income pooling across Europe and quantifies the relative importance of selection and commitment mechanisms for couples’ decisions to share or separate economic resources. Background: Prior research has not effectively measured the relative importance of selection and commitment. We argue that, partly, this is because previous studies treated cohabiters and married couples as two homogeneous groups. We therefore distinguish four union types: directly married, married after cohabitation, cohabiters with and without marital intentions. Method: Using data from the Generation and Gender Survey Round 1 and logistic regression models with KHB decomposition, we analyze income pooling behaviors in 11 countries (n=34,061). Results: Findings reveal a gradient in income pooling in seven countries (Germany, France, Austria, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic and Sweden), with directly married couples being most likely to pool their incomes, followed by couples who married after cohabitation, cohabiters with and without marital intentions. Commitment-related variables explain more variation in income pooling between union types than selection-related ones, except when comparing directly married and married after cohabitation, where selection is more relevant. In Bulgaria, Russia, Georgia, and Romania, neither mechanism significantly impacts the minimal gap. Conclusion: Income pooling varies substantially between as well as within marriage and cohabitation. Commitment is generally more influential than selection for understanding couples’ resource sharing, though institutional and cultural settings condition the strength of these patterns.