Housing wealth, mortgages and Australians’ labour force participation in later life
In the life cycle model of consumption and saving, homeownership is an important vehicle for horizontal redistribution. Households accumulate wealth in owner-occupied housing during working lives before benefiting from imputed rent streams in retirement. But in some countries housing wealth’s welfar...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP190101461 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/85409 |
| _version_ | 1848764735083773952 |
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| author | ViforJ, Rachel Wood, Gavin Cigdem, M. |
| author_facet | ViforJ, Rachel Wood, Gavin Cigdem, M. |
| author_sort | ViforJ, Rachel |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | In the life cycle model of consumption and saving, homeownership is an important vehicle for horizontal redistribution. Households accumulate wealth in owner-occupied housing during working lives before benefiting from imputed rent streams in retirement. But in some countries housing wealth’s welfare role has broadened as owners increasingly use flexible mortgages to smooth consumption during working lives. One consequence is higher outstanding mortgages later in life, a burden exacerbated by high real house prices that compel home buyers to demand mortgages that are a growing multiple of their incomes. We investigate whether these developments are prompting longer working lives, an idea that is especially relevant in countries offering relatively low government pensions. Australia is one such country. We use the 2001–2017 panels of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey to estimate hazard models of exits from the Australian labour force as workers approach pensionable age. We find that those with high outstanding mortgage debts are more likely to postpone retirement, as are those with relatively low amounts of private pension wealth. These results are stronger in urban housing markets, and especially among males. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:24:04Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-85409 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:24:04Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-854092021-09-20T04:36:14Z Housing wealth, mortgages and Australians’ labour force participation in later life ViforJ, Rachel Wood, Gavin Cigdem, M. Science & Technology Social Sciences Life Sciences & Biomedicine Environmental Studies Urban Studies Environmental Sciences & Ecology Australians housing wealth labour force participation mature age mortgage debt PRECARIOUS EMPLOYMENT RETIREMENT DECISIONS SOCIAL-SECURITY OLDER HEALTH AGE PATHWAYS INCOME WORK EXIT In the life cycle model of consumption and saving, homeownership is an important vehicle for horizontal redistribution. Households accumulate wealth in owner-occupied housing during working lives before benefiting from imputed rent streams in retirement. But in some countries housing wealth’s welfare role has broadened as owners increasingly use flexible mortgages to smooth consumption during working lives. One consequence is higher outstanding mortgages later in life, a burden exacerbated by high real house prices that compel home buyers to demand mortgages that are a growing multiple of their incomes. We investigate whether these developments are prompting longer working lives, an idea that is especially relevant in countries offering relatively low government pensions. Australia is one such country. We use the 2001–2017 panels of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey to estimate hazard models of exits from the Australian labour force as workers approach pensionable age. We find that those with high outstanding mortgage debts are more likely to postpone retirement, as are those with relatively low amounts of private pension wealth. These results are stronger in urban housing markets, and especially among males. 2021 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/85409 10.1177/00420980211026578 English http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP190101461 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT200100422 SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Science & Technology Social Sciences Life Sciences & Biomedicine Environmental Studies Urban Studies Environmental Sciences & Ecology Australians housing wealth labour force participation mature age mortgage debt PRECARIOUS EMPLOYMENT RETIREMENT DECISIONS SOCIAL-SECURITY OLDER HEALTH AGE PATHWAYS INCOME WORK EXIT ViforJ, Rachel Wood, Gavin Cigdem, M. Housing wealth, mortgages and Australians’ labour force participation in later life |
| title | Housing wealth, mortgages and Australians’ labour force participation in later life |
| title_full | Housing wealth, mortgages and Australians’ labour force participation in later life |
| title_fullStr | Housing wealth, mortgages and Australians’ labour force participation in later life |
| title_full_unstemmed | Housing wealth, mortgages and Australians’ labour force participation in later life |
| title_short | Housing wealth, mortgages and Australians’ labour force participation in later life |
| title_sort | housing wealth, mortgages and australians’ labour force participation in later life |
| topic | Science & Technology Social Sciences Life Sciences & Biomedicine Environmental Studies Urban Studies Environmental Sciences & Ecology Australians housing wealth labour force participation mature age mortgage debt PRECARIOUS EMPLOYMENT RETIREMENT DECISIONS SOCIAL-SECURITY OLDER HEALTH AGE PATHWAYS INCOME WORK EXIT |
| url | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP190101461 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP190101461 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/85409 |