Why do home-owners do better?
Australians who own their own home display favourable outcomes on a range of socio-economic indicators when compared to renters, and substantial benefits of home-ownership also appear to accrue to their children. Whether such effects are causal or simply reflect pre-existing characteristics associa...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Conference Paper |
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2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/77146 |
| _version_ | 1848763819647565824 |
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| author | Dockery, Michael Bawa, Sherry |
| author_facet | Dockery, Michael Bawa, Sherry |
| author_sort | Dockery, Michael |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Australians who own their own home display favourable outcomes on a range of socio-economic indicators when compared to renters, and substantial benefits of home-ownership also appear to accrue to their children. Whether such effects are causal or simply reflect pre-existing characteristics associated with selection into home-ownership has important implications for decisions to be made by individuals and families, and for policy in light of recent declines in home-ownership rates for younger adults. The literature primarily attributes the better outcomes of those in home-ownership to greater residential stability, particularly in the case of children’s educational attainment, and a greater incentive to invest in the local community, but there is little empirical evidence on the sources of benefits from home-ownership in Australia. Using longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey (HILDA) this paper employs a range of strategies to test competing hypotheses relating to causal mechanisms and selection effects associated with home-ownership. We focus on indicators of physical and mental health, life satisfaction and, for youth, educational attainment. The results suggest the better physical and mental health outcomes of home-owners reflect selection effects rather than any causal impact of home-ownership on health. However, there is evidence that home-ownership promotes higher life-satisfaction, and of residential stability and parental community engagement associated with parental home-ownership impacting beneficially on outcomes for youth. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:09:31Z |
| format | Conference Paper |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-77146 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:09:31Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-771462020-04-29T07:07:39Z Why do home-owners do better? Dockery, Michael Bawa, Sherry 1402 - Applied Economics Australians who own their own home display favourable outcomes on a range of socio-economic indicators when compared to renters, and substantial benefits of home-ownership also appear to accrue to their children. Whether such effects are causal or simply reflect pre-existing characteristics associated with selection into home-ownership has important implications for decisions to be made by individuals and families, and for policy in light of recent declines in home-ownership rates for younger adults. The literature primarily attributes the better outcomes of those in home-ownership to greater residential stability, particularly in the case of children’s educational attainment, and a greater incentive to invest in the local community, but there is little empirical evidence on the sources of benefits from home-ownership in Australia. Using longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey (HILDA) this paper employs a range of strategies to test competing hypotheses relating to causal mechanisms and selection effects associated with home-ownership. We focus on indicators of physical and mental health, life satisfaction and, for youth, educational attainment. The results suggest the better physical and mental health outcomes of home-owners reflect selection effects rather than any causal impact of home-ownership on health. However, there is evidence that home-ownership promotes higher life-satisfaction, and of residential stability and parental community engagement associated with parental home-ownership impacting beneficially on outcomes for youth. 2019 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/77146 fulltext |
| spellingShingle | 1402 - Applied Economics Dockery, Michael Bawa, Sherry Why do home-owners do better? |
| title | Why do home-owners do better? |
| title_full | Why do home-owners do better? |
| title_fullStr | Why do home-owners do better? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Why do home-owners do better? |
| title_short | Why do home-owners do better? |
| title_sort | why do home-owners do better? |
| topic | 1402 - Applied Economics |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/77146 |