PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hsu, Joanne W.
TI  - Aging and Strategic Learning: The Impact of Spousal Incentives on Financial Literacy
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.51.4.1014-6712R
DP  - 2016 Oct 02
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 1036--1067
VI  - 51
IP  - 4
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/51/4/1036.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/51/4/1036.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2016 Oct 02; 51
AB  - Women tend to be less financially literate than men, consistent with a division of labor where husbands manage finances. However, women tend to outlive their husbands. I find that older women acquire financial literacy as they approach widowhood—80 percent would catch up with their husbands by the expected onset of widowhood. These gains are not attributable to husbands’ cognitive decline, as captured by cognition tests. The results are consistent with a model in which the division of labor collapses when a spouse dies: Women have incentives to delay acquiring financial human capital but also to begin learning before widowhood.