IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jhouse/v56y2022ics1051137722000110.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Household production, home improvement, and housing investment among older Americans

Author

Listed:
  • Murray, Tim
  • Dunn, Richard A.

Abstract

We investigate the role of household production in the context of home improvement and investment decisions of older Americans. To calculate the total value of home improvement, we apply a household production model where households can either purchase professional services or combine market goods with their time. We find that household production is a significant source of home investment. Failing to account for the value of time provided by household members greatly understates the total allocation of resources to home improvement. Consistent with standard household models, home production is a substitute for market-purchased services—labor supply is negatively related to the former and positively related to the latter.

Suggested Citation

  • Murray, Tim & Dunn, Richard A., 2022. "Household production, home improvement, and housing investment among older Americans," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhouse:v:56:y:2022:i:c:s1051137722000110
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhe.2022.101836
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1051137722000110
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jhe.2022.101836?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Axel Borsch-Supan & Vassilis Hajivassiliou & Laurence J. Kotlikoff, 1992. "Health, Children, and Elderly Living Arrangements: A Multiperiod-Multinomial Probit Model with Unobserved Heterogeneity and Autocorrelated Errors," NBER Chapters, in: Topics in the Economics of Aging, pages 79-108, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Michael D. Hurd & Susann Rohwedder, 2008. "The Retirement Consumption Puzzle: Actual Spending Change in Panel Data," NBER Working Papers 13929, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Velarde, Melanie & Herrmann, Roland, 2014. "Time use for consumption and household production of food: is there a retirement-consumption puzzle in Germany?," 2014 International Congress, August 26-29, 2014, Ljubljana, Slovenia 182829, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Benítez-Silva, Hugo & Eren, Selçuk & Heiland, Frank & Jiménez-Martín, Sergi, 2015. "How well do individuals predict the selling prices of their homes?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 12-25.
    5. Banks, James & Blundell, Richard & Tanner, Sarah, 1998. "Is There a Retirement-Savings Puzzle?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(4), pages 769-788, September.
    6. David A. Wise, 1989. "The Economics of Aging," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number wise89-1, June.
    7. Steven F. Venti & David A. Wise, 1989. "Aging, Moving, and Housing Wealth," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Aging, pages 9-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Jonathan D. Fisher & David S. Johnson & Joseph T. Marchand & Timothy M. Smeeding & Barbara Boyle Torrey, 2007. "No Place Like Home: Older Adults and Their Housing," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 62(2), pages 120-128.
    9. Joseph Gyourko & Joseph Tracy, 2006. "Using Home Maintenance and Repairs to Smooth Variable Earnings," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(4), pages 736-747, November.
    10. Richard Dunn, 2015. "Labor supply and household meal production among working adults in the Health and Retirement Survey," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 437-457, June.
    11. David A. Wise, 1990. "Issues in the Economics of Aging," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number wise90-1, June.
    12. Steven F. Venti & David A. Wise, 2004. "Aging and Housing Equity: Another Look," NBER Chapters, in: Perspectives on the Economics of Aging, pages 127-180, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Hamermesh, Daniel S, 1984. "Consumption during Retirement: The Missing Link in the Life Cycle," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 66(1), pages 1-7, February.
    14. Goodman, John Jr. & Ittner, John B., 1992. "The accuracy of home owners' estimates of house value," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 339-357, December.
    15. Schwerdt, Guido, 2005. "Why does consumption fall at retirement? Evidence from Germany," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 89(3), pages 300-305, December.
    16. Munnell, Alicia H. & Walters, Abigail N. & Belbase, Anek & Hou, Wenliang, 2020. "Are homeownership patterns stable enough to tap home equity?," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    17. Chunrong Ai & Jonathan Feinstein & Daniel L. McFadden & Henry Pollakowski, 1990. "The Dynamics of Housing Demand by the Elderly: User Cost Effects," NBER Chapters, in: Issues in the Economics of Aging, pages 33-88, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Andrew F. Haughwout & Sarah Sutherland & Joseph Tracy, 2013. "Negative equity and housing investment," Staff Reports 636, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    19. Gustman, Alan L. & Steinmeier, Thomas L., 2005. "The social security early entitlement age in a structural model of retirement and wealth," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2-3), pages 441-463, February.
    20. Velarde, Melanie & Herrmann, Roland, 2014. "How retirement changes consumption and household production of food: Lessons from German time-use data," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 3(C), pages 1-10.
    21. Jim Been & Susann Rohwedder & Michael Hurd, 2020. "Does Home Production Replace Consumption Spending? Evidence from Shocks in Housing Wealth in the Great Recession," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(1), pages 113-128, March.
    22. Calvo, Esteban & Haverstick, Kelly & Zhivan, Natalia, 2009. "Older Americans on the Go: Financial and Psychological Effects of Moving," MPRA Paper 48965, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    23. Katherine A. Kiel & Jeffrey E. Zabel, 1999. "The Accuracy of Owner‐Provided House Values: The 1978–1991 American Housing Survey," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 27(2), pages 263-298, June.
    24. James Poterba & Steven Venti & David Wise, 2011. "The Composition and Drawdown of Wealth in Retirement," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(4), pages 95-118, Fall.
    25. Elena Stancanelli & Arthur Van Soest, 2012. "Joint Leisure Before and After Retirement: a double Regression Discontinuity Approach," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 12085, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    26. Kadir Atalay & Garry F. Barrett & Anita Staneva, 2020. "The effect of retirement on home production: evidence from Australia," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 117-139, March.
    27. Jonathan Feinstein & Daniel McFadden, 1989. "The Dynamics of Housing Demand by the Elderly: Wealth, Cash Flow, and Demographic Effects," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Aging, pages 55-92, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    28. B. Douglas Bernheim & Jonathan Skinner & Steven Weinberg, 2001. "What Accounts for the Variation in Retirement Wealth among U.S. Households?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 832-857, September.
    29. Jaclene Begley & Lauren Lambie-Hanson, 2015. "The Home Maintenance and Improvement Behaviors of Older Adults in Boston," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(4), pages 754-781, October.
    30. Bogdon, Amy S., 1996. "Homeowner Renovation and Repair: The Decision to Hire Someone Else to Do the Project," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 323-350, December.
    31. Mark Aguiar & Erik Hurst, 2005. "Consumption versus Expenditure," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(5), pages 919-948, October.
    32. Brian Bucks & Karen M. Pence, 2006. "Do homeowners know their house values and mortgage terms?," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2006-03, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    33. Alan L. Gustman & Thomas L. Steinmeier, 2014. "The Role of Health in Retirement," NBER Working Papers 19902, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    34. David A. Wise, 2004. "Perspectives on the Economics of Aging," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number wise04-1, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Leonardo Sierra & Maximiliano Lizana & Catalina Pino & Amilkar Ilaya-Ayza & Briguitte Neculman, 2023. "Structural Model for Socially Sustainable Public Housing Decision-Making in Chile," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-21, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Murray, Tim, 2019. "Defined benefit pensions and homeownership in the post-Great Recession era," MPRA Paper 92601, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Tim Murray, 2018. "Do Potential Future Health Shocks Keep Older Americans from Using Their Housing Equity?," 2018 Papers pmu533, Job Market Papers.
    3. Barry R. Cobb & Tim Murray & Jeffrey S. Smith, 2022. "Adjustable consumption model for retirees to balance spending and risk," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 46(2), pages 420-451, April.
    4. Jim Been & Susann Rohwedder & Michael Hurd, 2021. "Households’ joint consumption spending and home production responses to retirement in the US," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 959-985, December.
    5. Jim Been & Susann Rohwedder & Michael Hurd, 2020. "Does Home Production Replace Consumption Spending? Evidence from Shocks in Housing Wealth in the Great Recession," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(1), pages 113-128, March.
    6. Jonathan Skinner, 2007. "Are You Sure You're Saving Enough for Retirement?," NBER Working Papers 12981, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Chunil Kim & Hyobi Choi & Yeol Choi, 2021. "Retirement Age and Housing Consumption: The Case of South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-21, January.
    8. Miriam Beblo & Sven Schreiber, 2022. "Leisure and housing consumption after retirement: new evidence on the life-cycle hypothesis," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 305-330, March.
    9. Kadir Atalay & Garry F. Barrett & Anita Staneva, 2020. "The effect of retirement on home production: evidence from Australia," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 117-139, March.
    10. Bonsang, Eric & van Soest, Arthur, 2020. "Time devoted to home production and retirement in couples: A panel data analysis," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    11. Munnell, Alicia H. & Walters, Abigail N. & Belbase, Anek & Hou, Wenliang, 2020. "Are homeownership patterns stable enough to tap home equity?," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    12. Bonsang, Eric & van Soest, Arthur, 2015. "Home Production and Retirement in Couples: A Panel Data Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 9156, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Jonathan Skinner, 2007. "Are You Sure You're Saving Enough for Retirement?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 59-80, Summer.
    14. Jan Rouwendal & Marcus de Graaf, 2012. "The demand for mortgage debt, increases in house prices and the elderly home equity puzzle," ERSA conference papers ersa12p950, European Regional Science Association.
    15. Ioannis Laliotis & Mujaheed Shaikh & Charitini Stavropoulou & Dimitrios Kourouklis, 2023. "Retirement and Household Expenditure in Turbulent Times," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 968-989, December.
    16. Stephens, Melvin & Unayama, Takashi, 2012. "The impact of retirement on household consumption in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 62-83.
    17. Disney, Richard & Henley, Andrew & Stears, Gary, 2002. "Housing costs, house price shocks and savings behaviour among older households in Britain," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 607-625, September.
    18. Alexandra Spicer & Olena Stavrunova & Susan Thorp, 2016. "How Portfolios Evolve after Retirement: Evidence from Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 92(297), pages 241-267, June.
    19. Daniel Burkhard, 2015. "Consumption smoothing at retirement: average and quantile treatment effects in the regression discontinuity design," Diskussionsschriften dp1512, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    20. Velarde, Melanie & Herrmann, Roland, 2014. "How retirement changes consumption and household production of food: Lessons from German time-use data," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 3(C), pages 1-10.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Household production; Retirement; Housing equity; Home improvement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies
    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • R20 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jhouse:v:56:y:2022:i:c:s1051137722000110. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622881 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.