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Housing Mobility and Downsizing at Older Ages in Britain and the USA
Author(s) -
BANKS JAMES,
BLUNDELL RICHARD,
OLDFIELD ZÖE,
SMITH JAMES P.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
economica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.532
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1468-0335
pISSN - 0013-0427
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0335.2011.00878.x
Subject(s) - renting , consumption (sociology) , subsidy , incentive , rental housing , demographic economics , distribution (mathematics) , subsidized housing , geography , labour economics , business , economics , political science , sociology , market economy , mathematical analysis , social science , mathematics , law
This paper examines geographic mobility and housing downsizing at older ages in Britain and the USA. Americans downsize housing much more than the British largely because Americans are much more mobile. The principal reasons for greater mobility among older Americans are twofold: (1) greater spatial distribution of geographic distribution of amenities (such as warm weather) and housing costs; (2) greater institutional rigidities in subsidized British rental housing providing stronger incentives for British renters not to move. This relatively flat British housing consumption with age may have significant implications for the form and amount of consumption smoothing at older ages.