The Gender Gap in Housing Returns |
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| Authors: | PAUL GOLDSMITH-PINKHAM KELLY SHUE |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham and Kelly Shue are at Yale School of Management and NBER. We thank Stefan Nagel (the Editor) and two anonymous referees for thoughtful comments. Thanks also to James Choi;2. Tim Landvoigt (discussant);3. Gonzalo Maturana (discussant);4. Barry Nalebuff;5. Chris Palmer (discussant);6. Paola Sapienza (discussant);7. Matt Spiegel;8. and seminar audiences at Berkeley, Booth Behavioral Approaches Conference, Colorado Finance Summit, Five Star Conference, Florida International University, FMA, Georgia State University, Johns Hopkins University, London School of Economics, NBER Behavioral Economics, New York Fed, Nova School of Business, Oklahoma, Stanford, UCLA, University of Michigan, University of Delaware, University of Pittsburgh, University of Toronto, Washington University in St. Louis, Yale, and Yale-RFS Conference on Real and Private-Value Assets for helpful comments. We thank Gen Li, Huijun Sun, and Kaushik Vasudevan for excellent research assistance. This research was funded in part by the International Center for Finance at Yale SOM. In compliance with The Journal of Finance disclosure policy, we have no conflicts of interest to disclose. |
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| Abstract: | Using detailed transactions data across the United States, we find that single women earn 1.5 percentage points lower annualized returns on housing relative to single men. Forty-five percent of the gap is explained by transaction timing and location. The remaining gap arises from a 2% gender difference in execution prices at purchase and sale. Consistent with a negotiation channel, women list for less and experience worse negotiated discounts. The gender gap shrinks in tight markets, where negotiation is replaced by quasi-auctions. Overall, gender differences in housing explain 30% of the gender gap in wealth accumulation for the median household. |
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