IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/37387.html

Fertility and the user cost of home ownership: Evidence from regional panel data

Author

Listed:
  • XXX, Shuya
  • Iwata, Shinichiro

Abstract

Cross-sectional data yield the interesting result that fertility rates and home ownership rates tend to correlate positively, while time-series data suggest an inverse (or no) relationship between them. Although these associations can be explained by observed economic variables, doubt remains as to whether these links are due to the existence of omitted regional and time effects. Thus, controlling for regional-specific fixed effects and nationwide common time effects, this paper tests the link between the user cost of home ownership, which is the purchase price of housing, and total fertility rates. The empirical results, which use a panel of Japanese regional aggregate data, suggest that the impact of user costs on fertility considerably decreased when compared with the pooled OLS regression result without controlling for the above effects, but remained significantly negative. In the Japanese context, the association between the number of children and home ownership seems to be complementary.

Suggested Citation

  • XXX, Shuya & Iwata, Shinichiro, 2012. "Fertility and the user cost of home ownership: Evidence from regional panel data," MPRA Paper 37387, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:37387
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/37387/1/MPRA_paper_37387.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dettling, Lisa J. & Kearney, Melissa S., 2014. "House prices and birth rates: The impact of the real estate market on the decision to have a baby," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 82-100.
    2. Hashimoto, Yuki & Kondo, Ayako, 2012. "Long-term effects of labor market conditions on family formation for Japanese youth," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 1-22.
    3. James Feyrer & Bruce Sacerdote & Ariel Dora Stern, 2008. "Will the Stork Return to Europe and Japan? Understanding Fertility within Developed Nations," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(3), pages 3-22, Summer.
    4. Ben-Shahar, Danny, 1998. "On the Optimality of the Hybrid Tenure Mode," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 69-92, March.
    5. Kuang-Ta Lo, 2012. "The Crowding-out Effect of Homeownership on Fertility," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 108-117, March.
    6. Bryant,W. Keith & Zick,Cathleen D., 2006. "The Economic Organization of the Household," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521805278, Enero-Abr.
    7. George B. Roberts, Chairman, Universities-National Bureau Committee for Economic Research, 1960. "Demographic and Economic Change in Developed Countries," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number univ60-2, January.
    8. Clara H. Mulder & Michael Wagner, 2001. "The Connections between Family Formation and First-time Home Ownership in the Context of West Germany and the Netherlands," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 17(2), pages 137-164, June.
    9. Bryant,W. Keith & Zick,Cathleen D., 2006. "The Economic Organization of the Household," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521801416, Enero-Abr.
    10. Gary S. Becker, 1960. "An Economic Analysis of Fertility," NBER Chapters, in: Demographic and Economic Change in Developed Countries, pages 209-240, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Choi, Eleanor Jawon & Choi, Jaewoo & Son, Hyelim, 2020. "The long-term effects of labor market entry in a recession: Evidence from the Asian financial crisis," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    2. Jara-Díaz, Sergio & Rosales-Salas, Jorge, 2017. "Beyond transport time: A review of time use modeling," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 209-230.
    3. Herrera Gómez, Marcos & Cid, Juan Carlos & Paz, Jorge Augusto, 2012. "Introducción a la econometría espacial: Una aplicación al estudio de la fecundidad en la Argentina usando R [Introduction to Spatial Econometrics: An application to the study of fertility in Argentina using R]," MPRA Paper 41138, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Luc Laeven & Alexander Popov, 2017. "Waking Up from the American Dream: On the Experience of Young Americans during the Housing Boom of the 2000s," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(5), pages 861-895, August.
    5. Pan, Jiun-Nan & Yang, Yan-Jie, 2020. "The impact of economic uncertainty on the decision of fertility: Evidence from Taiwan," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    6. Shinichiro Iwata & Keiko Tamada, 2014. "The backward-bending commute times of married women with household responsibility," Transportation, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 251-278, March.
    7. Daniël van Wijk & Peteke Feijten, 2025. "Rising House Prices, Falling Fertility? How Rising House Prices Widen Fertility Differences between Tenure Groups," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 41(1), pages 1-31, December.
    8. Michael F. Lovenheim & Kevin J. Mumford, 2010. "Do Family Wealth Shocks Affect Fertility Choices? Evidence from the Housing Market Boom and Bust," Purdue University Economics Working Papers 1228, Purdue University, Department of Economics.
    9. Michael Walden, 2012. "Will Households Change Their Saving Behaviour After the “Great Recession”? The Role of Human Capital," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 237-254, June.
    10. Chen, Nana & Xu, Hangtian, 2021. "Why has the birth rate relatively increased in China's wealthy cities?," MPRA Paper 105960, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Paz, Jorge & Arévalo, Carla, 2014. "Nivel y desigualdad por género en el uso del tiempo en la Argentina. Una nota introductoria [Gender inequality in the use of time in Argentina. An introductory note]," MPRA Paper 56085, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Nicoletta Balbo & Francesco C. Billari & Melinda Mills, 2013. "Fertility in Advanced Societies: A Review of Research," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 29(1), pages 1-38, February.
    13. Lukas Mahler & Michéle Tertilt & Minchul Yum, 2025. "Policy Concerns in an Era of Low Fertility: The Role of Social Comparisons and Intensive Parenting," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2025_705, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    14. Hyrum Smith & Michael Finke & Sandra Huston, 2012. "Financial Sophistication and Housing Leverage Among Older Households," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 315-327, September.
    15. Cygan-Rehm, Kamila & Maeder, Miriam, 2013. "The effect of education on fertility: Evidence from a compulsory schooling reform," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 35-48.
    16. Luca Zanin, 2017. "The effects of various motives to save money on the propensity of Italian households to allocate an unexpected inheritance towards consumption," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 1755-1775, July.
    17. Carl-Johan Dalgaard & Holger Strulik, 2006. "Subsistence – A Bio-economic Foundation of the Malthusian Equilibrium," Discussion Papers 06-17, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    18. Marla Ripoll & Juan Carlos Cordoba, 2011. "A Contribution to the Economic Theory of Fertility," 2011 Meeting Papers 1207, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    19. Kasey Buckles & Daniel Hungerman & Steven Lugauer, 2021. "Is Fertility a Leading Economic Indicator?," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(634), pages 541-565.
    20. Nico Voigtl?nder & Hans-Joachim Voth, 2013. "How the West "Invented" Fertility Restriction," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2227-2264, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • R21 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Housing Demand

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:37387. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.