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Life Cycles and Gender in Residential Mobility Decisions

DOI:10.1007/s11146-019-09743-7
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Jun Nagayasu
Jun Nagayasu
Jun Nagayasu
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Using household survey data from the recent economically depressed period, we attempt to identify typical household characteristics by residential type and study whether households change their residence at different stages of life. We find that the general trend in residential choice is influenced by socioeconomic background. The results of a multinomial probit estimation highlight that the probability of homeownership is higher in rural areas and increases with age of household heads, financial wealth, and family size. In contrast, the probability of renting a house is higher in urban areas and among female households. Moreover, it is observed that people adjust residential size despite market imperfections. The dwelling size increases with age of household heads and declines once they reach retirement age; however, the residential mobility is low at older ages. Furthermore, there are gender differences in terms of attitudes toward downsizing residences; female households are more willing to accept downsizing than are male households.
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https://doi.org/10.1007/s11146-019-09743-7
Life Cycles and Gender in Residential Mobility
Decisions
Jun Nagayasu1
©Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract
Using household survey data from the recent economically depressed period, we
attempt to identify typical household characteristics by residential type and study
whether households change their residence at different stages of life. We find that the
general trend in residential choice is influenced by socioeconomic background. The
results of a multinomial probit estimation highlight that the probability of homeown-
ership is higher in rural areas and increases with age of household heads, financial
wealth, and family size. In contrast, the probability of renting a house is higher
in urban areas and among female households. Moreover, it is observed that people
adjust residential size despite market imperfections. The dwelling size increases with
age of household heads and declines once they reach retirement age; however, the
residential mobility is low at older ages. Furthermore, there are gender differences in
terms of attitudes toward downsizing residences; female households are more willing
to accept downsizing than are male households.
Keywords Homeownership ·Life cycle ·Dwelling size ·
Multinomial probit method ·Bayesian approach ·Difference-in-differences ·
Japan ·Lost decades
JEL Classification R3 ·C5
The earlier version of this paper was presented at the biannual meeting of the Japanese Economic
Association and the Japan Society of Monetary Economics (2018). I would like to thank the editor,
anonymous referees, Charles Y. Horioka, Masafumi Kozuka, Arito Ono, Yoko Shirasu, and Hisaski
Yamaga and other participants for constructive comments, and Gabriel Cordoba and Zheqin Chen for
research assistance. All remaining errors are mine. The author declares that he has no conflict of
interest. This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS,
KAKENHI Grant Number 17K03796). Any opinion, findings and conclusions expressed in this paper
are those of the auhor and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author’s organization or the JSPS.
Jun Nagayasu
jun.nagayasu.d8@tohoku.ac.jp
1Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University, 27-1 Kawauchi, Aoba-ku,
Sendai, Miyagi 980-8576, Japan
Published online: 6 February 2020
Journal of Real Estate Finance & Economics (2021) 62:370–401
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
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