Leaving the Nest : The Interaction of Parental Income and Family Environment

The influence of parental income on the choice of young adults to leave the parents'home is still an open question. This paper suggests a model in which either moreparental income increases the independent child's consumption and encourages leaving(standard altruism) or increases more his consumption when co-residing (proximityaltruism) and induces to stay. Besides, housing is a non-transferable good, and lesshousing consumption at the parents' induces to move out. Empirical tests on French datadoes not reject the model. Both poor and rich parents are more likely to see theirchildren go than middle class parents, and the quality of the nest matters. Lack of space,living in a small town encourage leaving, so do privacy costs linked to living with astep-parent. When the quality of the nest is controlled for, the effect of parental incomeis closer to standard altruism, especially for younger children. This suggests thatparental housing decisions and income play an important role in the human capitalaccumulation of young adults.

Parental altruism and nest leaving in Europe:evidence from a retrospective survey

<p>We use retrospective life-history data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to assess parental altruism through the effect of parental resources and home characteristics on the age at which individuals now aged 50 or more left the nest in 13 countries. We show that the nest leaving age has declined from one cohort to the next and that the tendency has been of a relative decline in leaving one's parents to start a family and an increase in leaving home to pursue higher education, even if the first pattern was still the most common for the baby-boomers. We test an altruistic model where constrained parents push the child out, where less constrained "proximity altruistic" parents can help the child by providing a home or even, for the richest "active altruists", help the child leave the nest. Taking into account the endogenous child's choices of education, we find that most parents helped by being proximity altruists, while some helped their children move out and that the quality of the home had an important influence on the nest leaving age.</p>

Home-ownership in Europe:How did it happen?

<p>We use data from the third wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARELIFE)(1) to document the different ways individuals first became home-owners across countries and over cohorts over the second half of the 20th century. Focusing on first-time home owners we find that younger cohorts became home-owners earlier and were more likely to do it through credit, less likely to inherit their home directly. Having higher human capital, being employed, married, having children and living in an urban area, all make it more likely to purchase a home with a mortgage. The persistence of family help in accessing home-ownership in many countries demonstrates the interrelation between family, market and the state in most of continental Europe. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.</p>

The Effect of Widowhood on Housing and Location Choices

The number of widows has been increasing with population ageing and their influenceon the housing market is getting larger. This paper investigates the effect of widowhoodon housing and location choices. A partner's death induces a decrease in incomewhich may lead to downsizing. Widowhood may also reveal new preferences, such asthe need to be close to care givers and health services. We estimate the effect of atransition to widowhood on housing consumption and location choices using the FrenchHousing Surveys. Widowhood significantly increases residential mobility, especially atolder ages and when having children. Mobile recent widows tend to live closer to theirrelatives but do not move to co-reside with a child. Housing and location adjustmentsare consistent with new widows moving to dwellings that are smaller, more oftenapartments and in the rental sector, and on average located in larger cities whereservices are more accessible.

TRANSFERS FROM MIGRANTS TO THEIR CHILDREN: EVIDENCE THAT ALTRUISM AND CULTURAL FACTORS MATTER

This paper focuses on the determinants of financial inter vivos transfers by migrants living in France in 2003 to their adult children. From a theoretical viewpoint, such transfers may be explained either by altruism or by exchange. While parents would direct their assistance to their less well off children under altruism, support should be channeled to children who live nearby their parents under the exchange motive. We assess the relevance of these two motives using the French PRI survey. Unequal sharing is frequently observed and children are more likely to receive financial transfers when they are in poor circumstance, but not necessarily when living in proximity to parents. We also emphasize the role of cultural factors as determinants of the parental allocation among children. Muslim parents, in particular, are more likely to make transfers to sons than to daughters. Copyright � 2007 The Authors; Journal compilation � International Association for Research in Income and Wealth 2007.