Housing Tenure and Labour Mobility: A Comparison Across European Countries

Abstract

This paper studies housing tenure and labour mobility using individual data from the ECHP for five European countries. First, the effect of housing tenure on the unemployed workers' labour mobility is studied using a discrete unemployment duration model with two alternative exits to employment, depending on whether they are associated with a residential change or not. Ownership is found to affect geographical mobility negatively. Second, the results are robust to potential endogeneity of the ownership status and institutional differences across countries. Third, post-unemployment wages are studied. We do not find any effects of the unemployment spell duration and the geographical mobility on wages after controlling for the self-selection bias.

Keywords: Labour mobility, Housing tenure, Duration models, Self-selection bias, Wage equation

JEL Classification: J61, R20, J31