Is access to the housing market important?

Evidence from a housing lottery

Earlier research has found that difficulties in getting access to the housing market may lead to delayed childbearing, may have a negative effect on education and job-opportunities, and may make it difficult to predict the future housing career, something that have been associated with being integral to family well-being. However, the direction of causality between housing, fertility and work is not self-evident. It is very likely that young adults that are keen on becoming parents early or want to enter the job-market early are more prone to entering the housing market at a young age and therefore also acquire their first apartment at a young age, something that will give them more time to make a housing career. This self-selection pattern has been difficult to control for in earlier studies of the housing market.

The aim with this project is to investigate the causal effect of getting access to the housing market on fertility, education and work by taking advantage of a unique housing lottery and a housing distribution mechanism for young adults that has taken place in the last decade in Stockholm, Sweden.

Project start

2015-01-01

Funding

Forte 

Researcher

Cecilia Enström Öst, researcher, IBF (project manager)