Open AccessAge-Specific Household Size as a Demographic Aspect of Regional Disparity: Czech Republic, 1991
Author(s) -
Abraham Akkerman
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
canadian studies in population
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.157
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1927-629X
pISSN - 0380-1489
DOI - 10.25336/p6zs3r
Subject(s) - czech , demographic economics , census , geography , capital (architecture) , government (linguistics) , planned economy , economics , economy , development economics , population , demography , economic system , sociology , philosophy , linguistics , archaeology
The post-communist transition to market economy in Central Europe over thelast decade of the twentieth century had a significant impact on the demographic profile of the former Soviet bloc countries. Largely due to government policy and market conditions related to housing, this observation is particularly true for the Czech Republic. The present study shows housing as a facet of regional demographic differences within the Czech Republic. The household composition matrix is applied here as a demographic gauge to the behavioral response of households to Czech housing markets and policy. The matrix provides here a glance at households’ demographic behavior in the capital city of Prague and in the country’s other regions, during the early transition period, based on observations from the 1991 census. A summary feature of household composition is the age-specific household size shown for the various regions of the Czech Republic to trace the reduced standard Gamma function. Anomalies detected in the trajectory of age-specific household size for Prague confirm the unique housing market conditions in the capital city, and point to a commensurate demographic response in Prague as opposed to the rest of the country.