Period of funding: October 2010 – September 2013
Housing transitions - such as changes in housing tenure and residential mobility - are the outcomes of a complex history of other lifecourse events such as union formation and dissolution, births of children, and changes in employment. The principal aim of this project is to examine the extent to which tenure changes and residential mobility are triggered by fertility outcomes such as the birth of a(nother) child or a child reaching primary or secondary school age, allowing for the effects of other social processes such as union formation and dissolution and employment changes. The project will also consider spatial variation in the relationship between housing transitions and fertility, both within Britain and between Britain and Australia.
The primary data sources for the project are the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) and the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. The project will also investigate a number of important methodological issues in the analysis of panel data, including the nested structure of housing histories (repeated episodes of living in the same tenure or house within individuals), and adjustment for unmeasured individual characteristics that affect both changes in housing and changes in fertility.