Husbands, Wives, and Perception of Relative Knowledge About Household Finances

Which spouse is more knowledgeable about the household’s finances in mixed-sex married couple households? The answer to this question can be inferred from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), which assigns the title of “respondent” to the person the household indicates is more knowledgeable about its finances. In the 2016 SCF, the husband was the respondent in 56% of husband-wife households, but among households in the top 1% of net worth, the husband was the respondent in 90% of the households. Despite the progress women have made in education and other aspects of society, husbands were the respondent in a higher percent of households in 2016 than in 1992, and the husband was much more likely to be the respondent in wealthy households. Logistic regression on whether the husband or wife was the respondent showed a strong effect of the spouse with more education being the respondent