Social inequality and housing over the life course: good choices or lucky outcomes?

Social inequalities affect both opportunities and choices in the housing market, mainly due to the cumulative effect of house price differences over time and across space. Some have luck with their entry and further advancement in housing market, whereas others face insurmountable obstacles. The opposite applies as well - inequalities in housing can exacerbate or mitigate other dimensions of social inequality. These interdependencies between social inequality and housing are the overarching topic of our project. We explore how housing conditions and housing careers during childhood relate to various outcomes later in life. One article decomposes the variation in high school completion and enrolment in higher education variances at the levels of family and neighbourhood occupied at age seven. We find that boys are more susceptible to neighbourhood variations, and that children residing with both parents at the age of seven are less vulnerable. In another article, we investigate how childhood housing careers affect young adults? educational attainments, focusing on the role played by tenure. In another we find that, exposure to homeownership during childhood raises the likelihood of attending post-secondary education and graduating from high school. Another article addresses the impact of the financial position of non-resident parents on nest- leaving of young adults. We find that the probability of nest-leaving declines with increasing income of co-resident parents, while it increases with increasing income of non-resident parents. The income effect of non-resident parents on their offspring?s probability of nest leaving is significantly higher for same-sex offspring. We have focused on how outcomes on the housing market vary across social groups. We ask whether native parents are prone to leaving neighbourhoods with a high share of ethnic minorities. We find that both parents and parents-to-be are more sensitive to the concentration of ethnic minorities than are childless households. The size of the effect varies by housing tenure, with a higher level of out-mobility among homeowners. We also investigate whether inner-city residents over time have become more loyal to urban living, even after entering parenthood. We find that native parents stay in areas with spacious dwellings, while non-native parents tend to leave these areas. Parents who leave the inner city, especially non-natives, increase their representation in small houses. The results indicate that minority integration and compact-city policies may collide. We have explored the multi-generational transmission of housing status. We find that tenure, size and location of housing occupied by grandparents affect the probability of homeownership and the size of housing capital two generations later. The grandparent impact is partly direct, across three generations, and partly indirect, through socioeconomic resources in generation two. The most advantaged groups are people whose grandparents lived in a large city, and who owned one or more large dwellings in 1960. Another topic is demographic processes behind the ethnic geographies. We decompose ethnic composition and segregation on local and national mobility, international migration and natural demographic change. We find that local mobility increases own-group exposure and separation from the Nordic majority, while international migration increases spatial integration between Nordic and non-Nordic residents. Natural change strengthens both minority representation in established settlements and ethnic segregation in Oslo at large. Social stratification manifests itself clearly, in how families are distributed across the housing landscape. Wealthy families take advantage of each other's ability to support and maintain social capital to produce and protect local public goods by cluster together in high-price areas. This reinforces social inequalities. Three studies address the processes that lead different families to different parts of the Oslo region. We ask whether selective mobility reinforces geographical inequality over time. Our findings indicate a strong preference for homophily as the overall status composition of the neighbourhood is a powerful mobility driver for both low- and high-status households. We have examined the dynamics of the housing market in the form of vacancy chains in the Oslo area.There are many vacancies, but opportunities for disadvantaged groups are reduced by rapid absorption of owner-occupied flats, often because privileged nest-leavers eschew the rental market. All of these adverse consequences reflect the costs of neoliberal housing policies, and call for increased and improved opportunities in the rental sector. Project web-page: http://www.hioa.no/eng/About-HiOA/Centre-for-Welfare-and-Labour-Research/NOVA/Prosjekter/Ageing-Research-and-Housing-Studies/Social-inequality-and-housing-over-the-life-course-good-choices-or-lucky-outcomes.

Prosjektet har så langt resultert i 11 artikler i vitenskapelige tidsskrifter. Av Google Scholar fremgår at artiklene siteres. Prosjektet er presentert i nettsamfunnet Research Gate. Vi har deltatt på seminarer arrangert av interesseorganisasjoner, offentlige myndigheter på lokalt og statlig nivå og ved internasjonale konferanser. Vi kommer til å delta i slike sammenhenger også etter at prosjektets er over. Da vi har deltakere fra USA, har resultatene også fått en spredning til amerikanske forskningsmiljøer. Vi har også utnyttet resultatene fra forskningen i egen undervisning. Vil vi fremheve at Kristin Aarlands forskning om hvordan boforhold påvirker barns livssjanser har skapt oppmerksomhet i Kunnskapsdepartementet, og har gitt henne en plass i den offentlige utredningen om levekårs- og integreringsutfordringer i byene. Prosjektets deltagere fra Sverige og USA har vært gjesteforskere ved NOVA, og også holdt forelesninger og gitt kurs for forskere og studenter.

Social inequalities feed directly into opportunities of families at the housing market, and how they choose their housing positions. House prices and consequently housing equity vary over time. Different choices in the housing market furthermore yield varying access to neighborhood qualities, local public goods and social capital. Hence, social inequality does not only lead to inequalities in housing, but inequalities in housing can also over time exacerbate or mitigate other dimensions of social inequality. These interdependencies between social inequality and housing are the overarching topic of our proposed project. Random variation, or luck, is an often understated factor contributing to the dynamics of social inequalities, and the housing market is one particular arena where luck may play a prominent role. In order to investigate in more detail the interplay between housing and other dimensions of social inequality we formulate four work packages in which we investigate how the housing careers and other important trajectories of the life course are intertwined. We study possible long-term effects of children of growing up in private or social renting with an emphasis on high school completion rates. Using vacancy chain models we study how choices of individual families affect opportunities for other families, both in the short and long run. Finally we investigate how the life course of individuals subsequent to divorce or spousal loss depends on past and present housing conditions. Theoretically our analyses are rooted in a life course framework. The project has an empirical approach. We utilize large scale register data, taking due account of the selection and simultaneity problems inherent in the phenomena studied and the fact that shared unobser vables are important determinants of outcomes.