Are We Really Mama’S Boys? How Incomes Affect Italians’ Leaving Home Decisions

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to identify the main determinants of Italians’ leaving home decisions. We use data from the Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) by the Bank of Italy. The empirical study is performed by cross-section probit and panel-probit estimation. Contrary to the predominant literature’s claim, our findings unveil the positive and statistically significant effects of both children’s and parents’ income on the departure probability. We interpret this positive parents’ income effect as a signal for inter-household transfers. Finally, we distinguish by gender and find that while the young men’s leaving home is strongly dependent on such transfers, the same does not hold for young women.

Keywords: leaving home, intergenerational transfers, altruism

JEL Classification: C25, D1, D64, J13