Savings and investment decisions within private households: Spouses' dominance in decisions on various forms of investment

The present study aims at describing spouses' relative dominance in decisions concerning different forms of investment. As determinants of spouses' dominance, partnership characteristics, such as partnership role attitudes, marital satisfaction and individual expertise in relation to different investments, were considered. A questionnaire on spouses' dominance in making decisions on various investments, on the characteristics of particular investments and on partnership characteristics was completed by 142 Austrian couples. Basically, wives appeared to adapt to the dominance exerted by their husbands in savings and investment decisions. Wives' dominance was highest in egalitarian partnerships. where autonomic and wife-dominated decisions were reported more frequently than in traditional partnerships. Additionally, spouses' relative expertise in relation to the investments in question showed strong effects on dominance distribution: Spouses with higher expertise than their partners exerted more dominance in decision-making processes. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PsycINFO classification: 3920; 2950. JEL classification: D12; D91; P46.