A room of one’s own or room enough for two? Access to housing and new household formation in Sweden, 1968–1992

Abstract

Familistic and individualistic theories both provide explanations for recent declines in family household formation. Securing access to housing plays a key role in new household formation for both these theories. Familistic theories hypothesize a positive relationship between access to housing and new family household formation. Individualistic theories hypothesize a positive relationship between access to housing and nonfamily household formation. Here I test these hypotheses in Sweden by modeling leaving home for family and nonfamily household formation using the Swedish Family Survey and supplemental housing data. I find significant support for the familistic notion that greater access to housing increases the likelihood of family household formation. I fail to find support for the individualistic theory. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2006Cohabitation, Family, Housing, Nest-leaving, Sweden,

Marriage crisis and housing costs: Empirical evidence from provinces of Iran

“…Similarly, using a cross-sectional data from 11 18 Western countries, Mulder and Billariin (2010) show that family formation and fertility are hampered in countries with difficult access to homeownership and low access to mortgages. Lauster (2006), using the Swedish Family Survey, also finds that greater access to housing increases the likelihood of family household formation. Martínez-Granado and Ruiz-Castillo (2002) emphasize the role of housing costs and income as the basic determinants of the household formation and related demographic decisions in Spain.…”

Rental Housing for Young Households in the Czech Republic: Perceptions, Priorities, and Possible Solutions

“…Thus, diffi culties obtaining stable housing can, even if often only indirectly, infl uence reproductive behaviour. This relationship has been demonstrated in studies in Sweden and the United States [Haurin, Hendershott and Kim 1993;Hughes 2003;Lauster 2006;all in Rindfuss and Brauner-Otto 2008].…”

Better Homes and Families: Housing Markets and Young Couple Stability in Sweden

“…Cohabiting couples in Sweden have long been widely considered a form of family (Trost, 1978), and a great deal of childbearing takes places within the contexts of nonmarital cohabitation (Duvander, 1998). Likewise, very few Swedes marry without first living together with their partner, making cohabitation both an alternative and a precursor to marriage (Lauster, 2006). Interestingly, Sweden experienced a miniature marriage boom in 1989, following a one‐time shift in the pension policy making certain benefits accessible to married partners but not to cohabiting couples (Andersson, 1998).…”