Essays on Inequality, Ownership, and Financial Decision Making in Close Relationships

Romantic relationships provide a rich and important context for studying financial decision making. The financial lives of romantic partners are often deeply intertwined: they make joint expenditures, share assets and resources, assume liabilities together, and depend on one another in pursuing financial goals. At the same time, partners are individuals with their own preferences, goals, earnings, financial history, and opportunities. Therefore, it would be misleading to assume that romantic partners experience identical financial lives and arrive at the same financial outcomes. In this dissertation, I examine how inequalities in income and ownership emerge within relationships and how they shape couples' financial decisions. Chapter 1 explores how decisions to prioritize total household income over equality can initiate a pattern of escalating inequality, often at the expense of the lower-earning partner's income and career. One might argue, however, that income inequality within relationships is of limited consequences if "what is mine is yours." Chapter 2 takes up that question by examining whether higher- and lower-earning partners are in fact perceived as having equal access to and equal ownership over their shared resources.