Foye, C;
Clapham, D;
Gabrieli, T;
(2017)
Home-ownership as a social norm and positional good: Subjective wellbeing evidence from panel data.
Urban Studies
10.1177/0042098017695478.
Preview |
Text
Gabrieli_PDF_.PDF - Accepted Version Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Much attention has been devoted to examining the absolute benefits of home-ownership (e.g. security and autonomy). This paper, by contrast, is concerned with conceptualising and testing the relative benefits of home-ownership; those benefits that depend on an individual’s status in society. Home-ownership has previously been analysed as a social norm, implying that the relative benefits (costs) associated with being an owner (renter) are positively related to relevant others’ home-ownership values. The theoretical contribution of this paper is to additionally conceptualise home-ownership as a positional good, implying that the status of both home-owners and renters is negatively related to relevant others’ home-ownership consumption. The empirical contribution of this paper is to quantitatively test for these relative benefits in terms of subjective wellbeing. We run fixed effects regressions on three waves of the British Household Panel Study. We find that (1) a strengthening of relevant others’ home-ownership values is associated with increases (decreases) in the subjective wellbeing of home-owners (renters), and (2) an increase in relevant others’ home-ownership consumption decreases the life satisfaction of owners but has no effect for renters. Overall our findings suggest that (1) the relative benefits of home-ownership are both statistically significant and of a meaningful magnitude, and (2) home-ownership is likely to be both a social norm and a positional good. Without explicitly recognising these relative benefits, policymakers risk overestimating the contribution of home-ownership to societal wellbeing.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Home-ownership as a social norm and positional good: Subjective wellbeing evidence from panel data |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1177/0042098017695478 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0042098017695478 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Home-ownership, housing tenure, positional good, social norm, subjective wellbeing |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett School of Planning |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1553081 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
