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Housing Wealth, Property Taxes, and Labor Supply among the Elderly

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  • Lingxiao Zhao
  • Gregory Burge

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between housing wealth, property taxes, and elderly labor supply using longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Survey spanning the recent boom/bust housing cycle. When combined with MSA-specific house price indexes, the data provide plausibly exogenous variation in housing wealth, identified through within-MSA renter/homeowner comparisons. Our findings suggest that elderly households respond to variation in housing wealth and property taxes in the predicted opposing directions, that wealth influences labor supply to a lesser extent than factors like health and marital status, and that the effect of housing wealth on labor supply varies by gender and age.

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  • Lingxiao Zhao & Gregory Burge, 2017. "Housing Wealth, Property Taxes, and Labor Supply among the Elderly," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(1), pages 227-263.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlabec:doi:10.1086/687534
    DOI: 10.1086/687534
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    8. Begley, Jaclene & Chan, Sewin, 2018. "The effect of housing wealth shocks on work and retirement decisions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 180-195.
    9. Xiandeng Jiang & Le Chang & Yanlin Shi, 2023. "Housing price diffusions in mainland China: evidence from a spatially penalized graphical VAR model," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 64(2), pages 765-795, February.
    10. Li, Han & Li, Jiangyi & Lu, Yi & Xie, Huihua, 2020. "Housing wealth and labor supply: Evidence from a regression discontinuity design," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    11. Stijn Dreesen & Sven Damen, 2023. "The accuracy of homeowners’ valuations in the twenty-first century," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 513-566, July.
    12. Anil Kumar & Che-Yuan Liang, 2018. "Labor Market Effects of Credit Constraints: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Working Papers 1810, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, revised 04 Feb 2023.
    13. Salari, Mahmoud & Javid, Roxana J., 2019. "How does female labor force participation impact on housing values?," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 129-137.
    14. Jie Chen & Mingzhi Hu & Zhenguo Lin, 2023. "China’s Housing Reform and Labor Market Participation," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 67(2), pages 218-242, August.
    15. Hong Liu & Lili Liu & Fei Wang, 2023. "Housing wealth and fertility: evidence from China," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(1), pages 359-395, January.
    16. Paolo Giovanni Piacquadio, 2020. "Poverty and Individual Responsibility," CESifo Working Paper Series 8169, CESifo.
    17. Naqun Huang & Jing Li & Amanda Ross, 2022. "Housing wealth shocks, home equity withdrawal, and the claiming of Social Security retirement benefits," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(2), pages 620-644, April.
    18. Jie Chen & William Hardin & Mingzhi Hu, 2020. "Housing, Wealth, Income and Consumption: China and Homeownership Heterogeneity," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 48(2), pages 373-405, June.
    19. Jiang, Xiandeng & Zhao, Ningru & Pan, Zheng, 2022. "Regional housing wealth, relative housing wealth and labor market behavior," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    20. Marlena Piekut, 2020. "Living Standards in One-Person Households of the Elderly Population," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-26, January.
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    22. Huang, Naqun & Ning, Guangjie & Rong, Zhao, 2022. "Destination homeownership and labor force participation: Evidence from rural-to-urban migrants in China," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).

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