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Saving and Cohabitation: The Economic Consequences of Living with One's Parents in Italy and the Netherlands

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Author Info
Rob Alessie ()
Agar Burgiavini ()
Guglielmo Weber ()

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Abstract

The paper deals with the effects of cohabitation of grown children with their parents on household saving, using data from Italy and the Netherlands. It presents a twoperiod game-theoretical model where the child has to decide whether to move out of the parental home. This decision is affected by transaction costs, the child's preference for independence, and by the consumption loss induced by the move (consumption is a public good while the child lives in the parental home). We show that the child's income share affects the household saving decision, in contrast with predictions of the standard unitary model of household decision making. Empirical results from both countries are supportive of the key model predictions. We find strong positive effects of the child income share on the saving rate in Italy, where we calculate saving as the difference between disposable income and consumption but cannot distinguish children who will leave from those who will stay. We also find some significant effects of the child income share on household saving rate in the Netherlands, where saving is computed as the change over time in financial wealth. In the Dutch data we distinguish between children who stay and children who leave. The effect of the child's income share is significantly negative for those who stay, positive for those who leave.

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Paper provided by Utrecht School of Economics in its series Working Papers with number 04-22.

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Length: 14 pages
Date of creation: Aug 2004
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Handle: RePEc:use:tkiwps:0422

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D91 - Microeconomics - - Intertemporal Choice and Growth - - - Intertemporal Consumer Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving

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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. Erich Battistin & Raffaele Miniaci & Guglielmo Weber, 2003. "What do we learn from recall consumption data?," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 466, Bank of Italy, Economic Research Department. [Downloadable!]
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  2. Chiuri, Maria Concetta & Jappelli, Tullio, 2003. "Financial market imperfections and home ownership: A comparative study," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(5), pages 857-875, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Guiso, Luigi & Jappelli, Tullio, 2002. "Private Transfers, Borrowing Constraints and the Timing of Homeownership," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 34(2), pages 315-39, May.
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  4. Brugiavini, Agar & Padula, Mario, 2001. "Too much for retirement? Saving in Italy," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 39-60, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Alessie, Rob & Kapteyn, Arie, 2002. "Savings and pensions in the Netherlands," Serie Research Memoranda 0009, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Orazio P. Attanasio, 1993. "A Cohort Analysis of Saving Behavior by U.S. Households," NBER Working Papers 4454, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Maurizio Mazzocco, 2004. "Saving, Risk Sharing, and Preferences for Risk," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(4), pages 1169-1182, September. [Downloadable!]
  8. Marco Manacorda & Enrico Moretti, 2006. "Why do Most Italian Youths Live with Their Parents? Intergenerational Transfers and Household Structure," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 4(4), pages 800-829, 06. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Becker, Sascha & Bentolila, Samuel & Fernandes, Ana & Ichino, Andrea, 2004. "Job Insecurity and Children's Emancipation," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Alessie, Rob & Lusardi, Annamaria & Aldershof, Trea, 1997. "Income and Wealth over the Life Cycle: Evidence from Panel Data," Review of Income and Wealth, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(1), pages 1-32, March.
  11. Martin Browning, 1994. "The Saving Behaviour of a Two Person Household," Department of Economics Working Papers 1994-01, McMaster University. [Downloadable!]
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  12. Francesco C. Billari & Dimiter Philipov & Pau Baizán Munoz, 2001. "Leaving home in Europe: the experience of cohorts born around 1960," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2001-014, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany. [Downloadable!]
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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. Erich Battistin & Agar Brugiavini & Enrico Rettore & Guglielmo Weber, 2008. "The retirement consumption puzzle: evidence from a regression discontinuity approach," IFS Working Papers W08/05, Institute for Fiscal Studies. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Nuno Martins & Ernesto Villanueva, 2006. "Does limited access to mortgage debt explain why young adults live with their parents?," Banco de España Working Papers 0628, Banco de España. [Downloadable!]
  3. Deborah A. Cobb-Clark, 2008. "Leaving Home: What Economics Has to Say about the Living Arrangements of Young Australians," CEPR Discussion Papers 568, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Sara Ayllón, 2009. "Poverty and living arrangements among youth in Spain, 1980-2005," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 20(17), pages 403-434, April. [Downloadable!]
  5. Lisa Callegaro & Giacomo Pasini, 2007. "Social interaction effects in an inter-generational model of informal care giving," Working Papers 2007_10, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari", Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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