The impact of housing market institutions on labour mobility: a European cross-country comparison

Author (Person) ,
Series Title
Series Details No 54, July 2007
Publication Date 30/07/2007
Content Type

From Source URL click on 'Download the document (PDF) for FREE

This paper examines the effects of housing market institutions on labour mobility. The authors construct durations for individuals leaving their current job for a different job, becoming unemployed or leaving the labour market, from a sample of households from 14 European countries in 1994-2001. This data are then merged with country-specific housing market institutions, such as transaction taxes, and language and religion diversity. Similar to previous studies, estimated hazards indicate that home-ownership reduces job-to-job mobility as well as the probability to become unemployed or economically inactive on an individual level. However, a comparison between countries reveals that countries with high levels of home-ownership rates also have high levels of unemployment. Therefore, this paper is able to reconcile the seemingly contrasting empirical results from both the macroeconomic and the microeconomic level.

Source Link http://aei.pitt.edu/7587/1/Wp54.pdf
Subject Categories , ,
Countries / Regions