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Do housing and social policies make households too small? Evidence from New York

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Author Info
Ingrid Gould Ellen (New York University)
Brendan O'Flaherty (Columbia University - Department of Economics)
Abstract

How many adults should live in a house? How do people actually divide themselves up among households? Average household sizes vary substantially, both over time and in the cross-section. In New York City, we find that housing and income maintenance policies exert powerful influences on household size and composition -- more powerful than race, culture, or ethnicity. These policies make households smaller (measured by number of adults). We review arguments why governments might want to influence household sizes, and discern no reason for trying to make households smaller than they would be in the absence of these housing and income maintenance policies. Small average household size can be extremely expensive in terms of physical and environmental resources, higher rents, and possibly homelessness. Our results indicate that New York City may well have too much of it.

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File URL: http://www.econ.columbia.edu/RePEc/pdf/DP0203-07.pdf
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Paper provided by Columbia University, Department of Economics in its series Discussion Papers with number 0203-07.

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Length: 79 pages
Date of creation: 2002
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Handle: RePEc:clu:wpaper:0203-07

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  1. Nelson, Julie A, 1988. "Household Economies of Scale in Consumption: Theory and Evidence," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(6), pages 1301-14, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Bryan Ellickson & Birgit Grodal & Suzanne Scotchmer & William R. Zame, 1999. "Clubs and the Market," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 67(5), pages 1185-1218, September.
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  3. Alm, James & Whittington, Leslie A, 1995. "Income Taxes and the Marriage Decision," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 25-31, January.
  4. Pendakur, Krishna, 1998. "Semiparametric estimates and tests of base-independent equivalence scales," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 1-40, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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