<論文>住宅所有の世代間連鎖

Abstract

Since homeownership is a socioeconomic resource, along with income or occupational status, it is important to investigate the extent to which homeownership is determined by parental socioeconomic status. Recent studies have revealed that, in many societies, the probability of homeownership by young people is increased by parental homeownership. This relationship is called the intergenerational transmission of homeownership. In Japan, however, the conclusions of previous studies have been inconsistent in terms of whether or not intergenerational transmission of homeownership actually occurs. In this study, we aim to broaden the current state of knowledge by examining whether the effect of parental homeownership can be differentiated by the place of residence. We hypothesized that the effect of parental homeownership would be higher when parents lived in large cities, rather than in small cities or rural areas, because such parents were probably more affluent. This hypothesis was tested by binomial logistic regression analysis using data drawn from the Social Stratification and Social Mobility Survey conducted in 2005, focusing on homeownership by young people. The results showed that the hypothesis we proposed was valid. The children of homeowners in large cities had a probability of homeownership that was 17.5 percentage points higher than the children of non-owners, while there was no significant difference in the probability of homeownership between the children of homeowners in other areas and the children of non-owners. This may be because homeowners in large cities provide higher amounts of inter vivos gifts to their children when they buy their house. Overall, the results imply that homeownership has a certain significance for the process of intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic resources in Japan.