[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/halshs-00754442.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The effect of Widowhood on Housing and Location Choices

Author

Listed:
  • Carole Bonnet

    (INED - Institut national d'études démographiques)

  • Laurent Gobillon

    (INED - Institut national d'études démographiques, PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - ENSAI - Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information [Bruz] - X - École polytechnique - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris - ENSAE Paris - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Anne Laferrère

    (CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - ENSAI - Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information [Bruz] - X - École polytechnique - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris - ENSAE Paris - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (INSEE))

Abstract
The number of elderly persons living alone is increasing and their influence on the housing market is getting larger. This paper investigates the effect of the loss of a spouse on housing and location choices. A partner's death induces a decrease in income which may lead to downsizing. Widowhood may also reveal new preferences, such as the need to be close to care givers and health services. We estimate the effect of a transition to widowhood on housing consumption and location choices using the French Housing Surveys. Widowhood significantly increases residential mobility, especially at older ages and for those who have children. Mobile widows tend to live closer to their relatives but do not move to co-reside with a child. Housing and location adjustments are consistent with new widows moving to dwellings that are smaller, more often apartments and in the rental sector, and on average located in larger municipalities where services are more accessible. The housing demand of widows will be significant in the next 20 years, especially the demand for small dwellings.

Suggested Citation

  • Carole Bonnet & Laurent Gobillon & Anne Laferrère, 2010. "The effect of Widowhood on Housing and Location Choices," Post-Print halshs-00754442, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00754442
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhe.2010.04.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Axel Borsch-Supan & Vassilis Hajivassiliou & Laurence J. Kotlikoff, 1992. "Health, Children, and Elderly Living Arrangements: A Multiperiod-Multinomial Probit Model with Unobserved Heterogeneity and Autocorrelated Errors," NBER Chapters, in: Topics in the Economics of Aging, pages 79-108, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Arrondel, Luc & Laferrere, Anne, 2001. "Taxation and wealth transmission in France," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 3-33, January.
    3. Iacovou, Maria, 2000. "The living arrangements of elderly Europeans," ISER Working Paper Series 2000-09, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    4. Steven F. Venti & David A. Wise, 1989. "Aging, Moving, and Housing Wealth," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Aging, pages 9-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Grossman, Sanford J & Laroque, Guy, 1990. "Asset Pricing and Optimal Portfolio Choice in the Presence of Illiquid Durable Consumption Goods," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(1), pages 25-51, January.
    6. Marjorie Flavin & Shinobu Nakagawa, 2004. "A Model of Housing in the Presence of Adjustment Costs: A Structural Interpretation of Habit Persistence," NBER Working Papers 10458, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Roback, Jennifer, 1982. "Wages, Rents, and the Quality of Life," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(6), pages 1257-1278, December.
    8. Roméo Fontaine & Agnès Gramain & Jérôme Wittwer, 2007. "Les configurations d'aide familiales mobilisées autour des personnes âgées dépendantes en Europe," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 403(1), pages 97-115.
    9. repec:dau:papers:123456789/7034 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. David A. Wise, 1990. "Issues in the Economics of Aging," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number wise90-1.
    11. Laurent Gobillon & David Le Blanc, 2004. "Limpact des contraintes demprunt sur la mobilité résidentielle et les choix entrelocation et propriété," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 74, pages 15-45.
    12. Steven F. Venti & David A. Wise, 2004. "Aging and Housing Equity: Another Look," NBER Chapters, in: Perspectives on the Economics of Aging, pages 127-180, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Robert F. Martin, 2003. "Consumption, durable goods, and transaction costs," International Finance Discussion Papers 756, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    14. Ermisch, John F. & Jenkins, Stephen P., 1999. "Retirement and housing adjustment in later life: evidence from the British Household Panel Survey," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 311-333, June.
    15. Costa, Dora L., 1999. "A house of her own: old age assistance and the living arrangements of older nonmarried women," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 39-59, April.
    16. Nelson, Julie A, 1988. "Household Economies of Scale in Consumption: Theory and Evidence," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(6), pages 1301-1314, November.
    17. Brueckner, Jan K, 1997. "Consumption and Investment Motives and the Portfolio Choices of Homeowners," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 159-180, October.
    18. Freedman, V.A., 1996. "Family Structure and the Risk of Nursing Home Admission," Papers 96-10, RAND - Reprint Series.
    19. Laurent Gobillon, 2001. "Emploi, logement et mobilité résidentielle," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 349(1), pages 77-98.
    20. Tatsiramos, Konstantinos, 2006. "Residential Mobility and Housing Adjustment of Older Households in Europe," IZA Discussion Papers 2435, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    21. Richard V. Burkhauser & Philip Giles & Dean R. Lillard & Johannes Schwarze, 2005. "Until Death Do Us Part: An Analysis of the Economic Well-Being of Widows in Four Countries," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 60(5), pages 238-246.
    22. Florian Heiss & Michael Hurd & Axel Borsch-Supan, 2003. "Healthy, Wealthy, and Knowing Where to Live: Predicted Trajectories of Health, Wealth and Living Arrangements Among the Oldest Old," NBER Working Papers 9897, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Henderson, J Vernon & Ioannides, Yannis M, 1983. "A Model of Housing Tenure Choice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(1), pages 98-113, March.
    24. Graves, Philip E. & Knapp, Thomas A., 1988. "Mobility behavior of the elderly," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 1-8, July.
    25. Marjorie Flavin & Takashi Yamashita, 2002. "Owner-Occupied Housing and the Composition of the Household Portfolio," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(1), pages 345-362, March.
    26. Namkee Ahn, "undated". "Economic Consequences of Widowhood in Europe: Cross-country and Gender Differences," Working Papers 2004-27, FEDEA.
    27. repec:dau:papers:123456789/1801 is not listed on IDEAS
    28. Diane Macunovich & Richard Easterlin & Christine Schaeffer & Eileen Crimmins, 1995. "Echoes of the baby boom and bust: Recent and prospective changes in living alone among elderly widows in the united states," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 32(1), pages 17-28, February.
    29. repec:adr:anecst:y:2004:i:74:p:02 is not listed on IDEAS
    30. Chen, Yong & Rosenthal, Stuart S., 2008. "Local amenities and life-cycle migration: Do people move for jobs or fun?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 519-537, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Viola Angelini & Anne Laferrère, 2012. "Residential Mobility of the European Elderly," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 58(3), pages 544-569, September.
    2. Costa-Font, Joan & Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina, 2022. "Health shocks and housing downsizing: How persistent is ‘ageing in place’?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 490-508.
    3. Carlos Pestana Barros & Zhongfei Chen & Luis A. Gil-Alana, 2012. "Housing sales in urban Beijing," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(34), pages 4495-4504, December.
    4. Dolores Sesma Carlos & Michel Oris & Jan Kok, 2022. "Coping with ageing: An historical longitudinal study of internal return migrations later in life in the Netherlands," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 46(27), pages 767-808.
    5. de Jong Petra & Brouwer Aleid, 2012. "Residential Mobility of Older Adults in the Dutch Housing Market: Do Individual Characteristics and Housing Attributes Have an Effect on Mobility?," European Spatial Research and Policy, Sciendo, vol. 19(1), pages 33-47, July.
    6. Zuzana Žilinčíková & Christine Schnor, 2021. "Who moves out and who keeps the home? Short-term and medium-term mobility consequences of grey divorce in Belgium," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 45(9), pages 291-328.
    7. Johannes Schuenemann & Holger Strulik & Timo Trimborn, 2020. "The Marriage Gap: Optimal Aging and Death in Partnerships," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 36, pages 158-176, April.
    8. Alexandra Schaffar & Michel Dimou & El Mouhoub Mouhoud, 2019. "The determinants of elderly migration in France," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 98(2), pages 951-972, April.
    9. Cris Beauchemin & Hugues Lagrange & Mirna Safi, 2011. "Transnationalism and immigrant assimilation in France : between here and there ?," Working Papers 172, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED).
    10. Zahia Ouadah-Bedidi, 2012. "Fécondité et nuptialité différentielles en Algérie : l'apport du recensement de 1998," Working Papers 185, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED).
    11. Ravi Pendakur & Nathan Young, 2013. "Putting on the moves," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 29(28), pages 767-796.
    12. Rosalind Edwards & Susie Weller & Emma Davidson & Lynn Jamieson, 2023. "Small Stories of Home Moves: A Gendered and Generational Breadth-and-Depth Investigation," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 28(1), pages 210-227, March.
    13. Xun Bian & Zhenguo Lin, 2022. "Housing debt and elderly housing tenure choices," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1360-1397, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bonnet, Carole & Gobillon, Laurent & Laferrère, Anne, 2010. "The effect of widowhood on housing and location choices," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 94-108, June.
    2. Jan Rouwendal, 2009. "Housing Wealth and Household Portfolios in an Ageing Society," De Economist, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 1-48, March.
    3. Laurent Gobillon & Francois-Charles Wolff, 2011. "Housing and Location Choices of Retiring Households: Evidence from France," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(2), pages 331-347, February.
    4. Laurent Gobillon & François-Charles Wolff, 2009. "Housing and location choices of retiring households: Evidence from France," PSE Working Papers hal-00424096, HAL.
    5. Engelhardt, Gary V. & Greenhalgh-Stanley, Nadia, 2010. "Home health care and the housing and living arrangements of the elderly," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 226-238, March.
    6. Murray, Tim, 2019. "Defined benefit pensions and homeownership in the post-Great Recession era," MPRA Paper 92601, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. repec:esx:essedp:712 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Matthew Chambers & Carlos Garriga & Don E. Schlagenhauf, 2009. "Accounting For Changes In The Homeownership Rate," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 50(3), pages 677-726, August.
    9. François Ortalo-Magné & Sven Rady, 2006. "Housing Market Dynamics: On the Contribution of Income Shocks and Credit Constraints ," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 73(2), pages 459-485.
    10. François Ortalo-Magné & Andrea Prat, 2016. "Spatial Asset Pricing: A First Step," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 83(329), pages 130-171, January.
    11. Tim Murray, 2018. "Do Potential Future Health Shocks Keep Older Americans from Using Their Housing Equity?," 2018 Papers pmu533, Job Market Papers.
    12. Viola Angelini & Anne Laferrère, 2012. "Residential Mobility of the European Elderly," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 58(3), pages 544-569, September.
    13. Disney, Richard & Henley, Andrew & Stears, Gary, 2002. "Housing costs, house price shocks and savings behaviour among older households in Britain," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 607-625, September.
    14. Hemert, Otto van & Jong, Franck de & Driessen, Joost, 2005. "Dynamic portfolio and mortgage choice for homeowners," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 24650, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Joseph B. Nichols, 2007. "Nominal mortgage contracts and the effects of inflation on portfolio allocation," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2007-67, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    16. Murray, Tim & Dunn, Richard A., 2022. "Household production, home improvement, and housing investment among older Americans," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    17. Jonathan S. Skinner, 1994. "Housing and Saving in the United States," NBER Chapters, in: Housing Markets in the United States and Japan, pages 191-214, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Matthew Chambers & Carlos Garriga & Don E. Schlagenhauf, 2007. "Mortgage contracts and housing tenure decisions," Working Papers 2007-040, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    19. Pelizzon, Loriana & Weber, Guglielmo, 2008. "Are Household Portfolios Efficient? an Analysis Conditional on Housing," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(2), pages 401-431, June.
    20. Hu, Xiaoqing, 2005. "Portfolio choices for homeowners," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 114-136, July.
    21. Gary V. Engelhardt & Nadia Greenhalgh-Stanley, 2008. "Public Long-Term Care Insurance and the Housing and Living Arrangements of the Elderly: Evidence from Medicare Home Health Benefits," Working Papers, Center for Retirement Research at Boston College wp2008-15, Center for Retirement Research, revised Dec 2008.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00754442. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.