IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/nzecpp/v51y2017i3p281-301.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effect of the price or rental cost of housing on family size: a theoretical analysis with reference to New Zealand

Author

Listed:
  • Mimi Liu
  • Jeremy Clark

Abstract

We investigate the effect of higher house prices or rental costs on family size. We provide a static model of a household's choice of family size assuming constant elasticity of substitution preferences between children, leisure, and other goods, and Cobb–Douglas household production of children using parental time and housing. We then explore the wealth and substitution effects that changing house prices or rental costs have on desired family size. Renters are predicted to have fewer children in response to higher rents. Home owners are predicted to have more children in response to higher house prices only if they have sufficient initial housing and low substitution between family size and other consumption, and fewer children otherwise. Finally, we provide exploratory correlations between the change in lagged house prices or rental costs and the change in number of children born to women using aggregated census units in New Zealand. We find weak negative correlations in both cases.

Suggested Citation

  • Mimi Liu & Jeremy Clark, 2017. "The effect of the price or rental cost of housing on family size: a theoretical analysis with reference to New Zealand," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(3), pages 281-301, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:nzecpp:v:51:y:2017:i:3:p:281-301
    DOI: 10.1080/00779954.2016.1199591
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00779954.2016.1199591
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00779954.2016.1199591?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. James Feyrer & Bruce Sacerdote & Ariel Dora Stern, 2008. "Will the Stork Return to Europe and Japan? Understanding Fertility within Developed Nations," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(3), pages 3-22, Summer.
    2. Dettling, Lisa J. & Kearney, Melissa S., 2014. "House prices and birth rates: The impact of the real estate market on the decision to have a baby," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 82-100.
    3. Ridao-Cano, Cristobal & McNown, Robert, 2005. "The effect of tax-benefit policies on fertility and female labor force participation in the United States," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 27(9), pages 1083-1096, December.
    4. Gianna Claudia Giannelli & Chiara Monfardini, 2003. "Joint decisions on household membership and human capital accumulation of youths. The role of expected earnings and local markets," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 16(2), pages 265-285, May.
    5. Walker, James R, 1995. "The Effect of Public Policies on Recent Swedish Fertility Behavior," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 8(3), pages 223-251, August.
    6. Lin, Chu-Chia Steve, 1993. "The Relationship between Rents and Prices of Owner-Occupied Housing in Taiwan," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 25-54, January.
    7. Simon, Curtis J. & Tamura, Robert, 2009. "Do higher rents discourage fertility? Evidence from U.S. cities, 1940-2000," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 33-42, January.
    8. William A.V. Clark, 2012. "Do women delay family formation in expensive housing markets?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 27(1), pages 1-24.
    9. Cheung, Yan-leung & Tsang, Shu-ki & Mak, Sui-choi, 1995. "The Causal Relationships between Residential Property Prices and Rentals in Hong Kong: 1982-1991," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 23-35, January.
    10. Michael F. Lovenheim & Kevin J. Mumford, 2013. "Do Family Wealth Shocks Affect Fertility Choices? Evidence from the Housing Market," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(2), pages 464-475, May.
    11. Cain, Glen G & Dooley, Martin D, 1976. "Estimation of a Model of Labor Supply, Fertility, and Wages of Married Women," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(4), pages 179-199, August.
    12. Leslie Whittington, 1992. "Taxes and the Family: The impact of the tax exemption for dependents on marital fertility," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 29(2), pages 215-226, May.
    13. Christian Hott & Pierre Monnin, 2008. "Fundamental Real Estate Prices: An Empirical Estimation with International Data," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 36(4), pages 427-450, May.
    14. Rafael Lalive & Josef Zweimüller, 2009. "How Does Parental Leave Affect Fertility and Return to Work? Evidence from Two Natural Experiments," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(3), pages 1363-1402.
    15. Eddie Chi-man Hui & Xian Zheng, 2012. "The dynamic correlation and volatility of real estate price and rental: an application of MSV model," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(23), pages 2985-2995, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. William A. V. Clark & Daichun Yi & Xin Zhang, 2020. "Do House Prices Affect Fertility Behavior in China? An Empirical Examination," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 43(5), pages 423-449, September.
    2. Clark, Jeremy & Ferrer, Ana, 2019. "The effect of house prices on fertility: Evidence from Canada," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 13, pages 1-32.
    3. Ana Ferrer & Jeremy Clark, 2016. "The Effect of Housing Price Changes on Fertility: Evidence from Canada," Working Papers 1603, University of Waterloo, Department of Economics, revised Sep 2016.
    4. Enström Öst, Cecilia & Wilhelmsson, Mats, 2019. "The long-term consequences of youth housing for childbearing and higher education," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 845-858.
    5. Atalay, Kadir & Li, Ang & Whelan, Stephen, 2021. "Housing wealth, fertility intentions and fertility," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    6. Namkee Ahn & Virginia Sánchez-Marcos, 2020. "Analysis of fertility using cohort-specific socio-economic data," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 711-733, September.
    7. Keisuke Kondo, 2019. "Does agglomeration discourage fertility? Evidence from the Japanese General Social Survey 2000–2010," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 677-704.
    8. Day, Creina & Guest, Ross, 2016. "Fertility and female wages: A new link via house prices," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 121-132.
    9. Xiao-Cui Yin & Chi-Wei Su, 2021. "House Prices and China's Birth Rate - A Note," Asian Economics Letters, Asia-Pacific Applied Economics Association, vol. 2(2), pages 1-4.
    10. Meng, Lina & Peng, Lu & Zhou, Yinggang, 2023. "Do housing booms reduce fertility intentions? Evidence from the new two-child policy in China," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    11. Janna Bergsvik & Sara Cools & Rannveig K. Hart, 2023. "Explaining Residential Clustering of Large Families," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 39(1), pages 1-28, December.
    12. Bellido, Héctor & Marcén, Miriam, 2011. "Divorce laws and fertility decisions," MPRA Paper 30243, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Luc Laeven & Alexander Popov, 2016. "A Lost Generation? Education Decisions and Employment Outcomes during the US Housing Boom-Bust Cycle of the 2000s," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 630-635, May.
    14. Sonia Bhalotra & Abhishek Chakravarty & Dilip Mookherjee & Francisco J. Pino, 2019. "Property Rights and Gender Bias: Evidence from Land Reform in West Bengal," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 205-237, April.
    15. Richard Disney & John Gathergood, 2018. "House Prices, Wealth Effects and Labour Supply," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 85(339), pages 449-478, July.
    16. John Simon & Tahlee Stone, 2017. "The Property Ladder after the Financial Crisis: The First Step is a Stretch but Those Who Make It Are Doing OK," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2017-05, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    17. Massimiliano Bratti & Konstantinos Tatsiramos, 2012. "The effect of delaying motherhood on the second childbirth in Europe," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(1), pages 291-321, January.
    18. N. Meltem Daysal & Michael F. Lovenheim & David N. Wasser, 2023. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Housing Wealth," NBER Working Papers 31669, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Héctor Bellido & Miriam Marcén, 2019. "Fertility and the business cycle: the European case," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 1289-1319, December.
    20. Luc Laeven & Alexander Popov, 2017. "Waking Up from the American Dream: On the Experience of Young Americans during the Housing Boom of the 2000s," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(5), pages 861-895, August.

    More about this item

    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:taf:nzecpp:v:51:y:2017:i:3:p:281-301. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RNZP20 .

    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.