Partner (Dis)Agreement on Moving Desires and the Subsequent Moving Behaviour of Couples

24 Pages Posted: 11 Apr 2011

See all articles by Rory Coulter

Rory Coulter

University of St. Andrews

Maarten van Ham

Delft University of Technology - OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies; University of St. Andrews; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Peteke Feijten

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Abstract

Residential mobility decisions are known to be made at the household level. However, most empirical analyses of residential mobility relate moving behaviour to the housing and neighbourhood satisfaction and pre-move thoughts of individuals. If partners in a couple do not share evaluations of dwelling or neighbourhood quality or do not agree on whether moving is (un)desirable, ignoring these disagreements will lead to an inaccurate assessment of the strength of the links between moving desires and actual moves. This study is one of the first to investigate disagreements in moving desires between partners and the subsequent consequences of such disagreements for moving behaviour. Drawing on British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) data, we find that disagreement about the desirability of moving is most likely where partners also disagree about the quality of their dwelling or neighbourhood. Panel logistic regression models show that the moving desires of both partners interact to affect the moving behaviour of couples. Only 7.6% of couples move if only the man desires to move, whereas 20.1% of shared moving desires lead to a subsequent move.

Keywords: residential mobility, household decision making, moving desires, partner disagreements, satisfaction

JEL Classification: J61, R21, R23

Suggested Citation

Coulter, Rory and van Ham, Maarten and van Ham, Maarten and Feijten, Peteke, Partner (Dis)Agreement on Moving Desires and the Subsequent Moving Behaviour of Couples. IZA Discussion Paper No. 5612, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1806413 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1806413

Rory Coulter (Contact Author)

University of St. Andrews ( email )

North St
St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AJ
United Kingdom

Maarten Van Ham

Delft University of Technology - OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies ( email )

P.O. Box 5043
2600 GA Delft
Netherlands
+31 15 278 2782 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.maartenvanham.nl

University of St. Andrews ( email )

North St
Saint Andrews, Fife KY16 9AJ
United Kingdom

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Peteke Feijten

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

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