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On the Negative Relationship between Labor Income Uncertainty and Homeownership: Risk Aversion vs. Credit Constraints

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Author Info
Diaz-Serrano, Luis () (National University of Ireland, Maynooth, CREB, Universitat de Barcelona and IZA Bonn)
Abstract

Barriers to homeownership have traditionally been an important research and policy issue. In particular, the role of income volatility and credit constraints have been one of the main focuses in this concern. In this paper we test for the first time whether the underlying nature behind the negative effect of income uncertainty on the owner-occupancy propensities is driven by risk aversion, as it is assumed in most of the theoretical models, or on the contrary it is driven by credit constraints. The former question emerges from the plausible assumption that households facing higher income volatility are also expected to face borrowing constraints. To disentangle this puzzle, we use an unusually rich data coming from the Italian Survey of Household Income and Wealth carried out by the Bank of Italy. Our results confirm that in Italy both labor income uncertainty and credit constraints exert a significant negative effect on the probability of homeownership. Our main findings indicate that the negative relationship between labor income uncertainty and the owner-occupancy propensities are just driven by households’ risk aversion, while credit constraints play no role.

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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 1208.

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Length: 28 pages
Date of creation: Jul 2004
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Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1208

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Related research
Keywords: homeownership; income uncertainty; credit constraints; risk aversion;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
R0 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - General
J0 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Peter Linneman & Susan Wachter, 1989. "The Impacts of Borrowing Constraints on Homeownership," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 17(4), pages 389-402. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Monica Paiella & Luigi Guiso, 2004. "Risk Aversion, Wealth and Background Risk," 2004 Meeting Papers 525, Society for Economic Dynamics. [Downloadable!]
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  3. Joop Hartog & Erik Plug & Luis Diaz Serrano & Jose Vieira, 2003. "Risk compensation in wages – a replication," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 639-647, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Gwilym Pryce & Margaret Keoghan, 2002. "Unemployment insurance for mortgage borrowers: is it viable and does it cover those most in need?," European Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 87-114, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Hartog, Joop & Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada & Jonker, Nicole, 2002. "Linking Measured Risk Aversion to Individual Characteristics," Kyklos, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 55(1), pages 3-26.
  6. Barakova, Irina & Bostic, Raphael W. & Calem, Paul S. & Wachter, Susan M., 2003. "Does credit quality matter for homeownership?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 318-336, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Diaz-Serrano, Luis & Hartog, Joop & Nielsen, Helena Skyt, 2003. "Compensating Wage Differentials for Schooling Risk in Denmark," IZA Discussion Papers 963, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  8. Haurin, Donald R. & Gill, H. Leroy, 1987. "Effects of income variability on the demand for owner-occupied housing," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 136-150, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Robst, John & Deitz, Richard & McGoldrick, KimMarie, 1999. "Income variability, uncertainty and housing tenure choice1," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 219-229, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Donald R. Haurin & Patric H. Hendershott & Susan M. Wachter, 1996. "Borrowing Constraints and the Tenure Choice of Young Households," NBER Working Papers 5630, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Ortalo-Magne, Francois & Rady, Sven, 2002. "Tenure choice and the riskiness of non-housing consumption," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 266-279, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Brunello, Giorgio, 2002. "Absolute risk aversion and the returns to education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 635-640, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Christofides, Louis N. & Stengos, Thanasis & Swidinsky, Robert, 1997. "On the calculation of marginal effects in the bivariate probit model," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 203-208, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Quercia, Roberto G. & McCarthy, George W. & Wachter, Susan M., 2003. "The impacts of affordable lending efforts on homeownership rates," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 29-59, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Ortalo-Magné, François & Rady, Sven, 2005. "Heterogeneity within Communities: A Stochastic Model with Tenure Choice," Discussion Papers in Economics 594, University of Munich, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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