the grass is always greener?

Insert footer on Slide Master

The Grass is Always Greener?

1

The Effect of Moving to a Bigger or Better House on Housing Satisfaction and Subjective Well-Being

By Chris Foye


Previous Studies• Oishi et al (2010) found in study of German Socio

Economic Panel that housing satisfaction increased (persistently over 5 years) after moving for housing related reasons but no increase in life satisfaction.

• Two reasons offered: a) Housing unimportant life domain b) Positives of moving outweighed by negatives.

• This study applies Oishi’s study to UK context and improves on it by;

1) Looking at gender, personality, and age as moderators2) Including costs associated with moving3) Looking at General Happiness Questionnaire as well as Life Satisfaction 2


Methodology• Used British Household Panel Study• Individuals selected if;1) Moved house within GB only once in 7 year period2) Responded “Bigger House”, “Better House” or

“Problems with previous accommodation” when asked for first reason for moving

3) Observed both sides of move4) Aged between 16-64 • 1350 individuals and 8440 observations from 1991-

2008• Split observations into 7 groups and used fixed

effects regression. 3


Methodology• WBit = αi + β’Xit + M-2,it + M-1,it + M0it +

M1it + M2it + M3it + εit X consists of: Age (and sq.), Log Income, Highest Qualification, Health Indicators, Economic Status, Marital Status, Children, 18 Regional Dummies, Caring and Tenure.• M-3,it (2-3 Years Before the move) has been dropped so

it acts as the reference group.• Males and Females analysed separately for three

reasons; 1) Housing more important domain for women in terms of

LS2) Men and women have been found to adapt differently

to life events3) Women tend to report more extreme levels of

subjective well-being than men4


Results – Housing Satisfaction

5

Significant at 0.01Significant at 0.05Significant at 0.1

Minus 2-3 Minus 1-2 Minus 0-1 Plus 0-1 Plus 1-2 Plus 2-3 Plus 3-4

-1

-0.8

-0.6

-0.4

-0.2

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

Year Relative to Move and Housing Satsifaction

MalesFemales


Results – Moving House and Life Sat

6



-0.02

0

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.1

0.12

0.14

Year Relative to Move and Life Satisfaction

MalesFemales


Results – Moving House and GHQ

7



-0.15

-0.1

-0.05

0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35Year Relative to Move and GHQ Score

MalesFemales


Discussion• Housing satisfaction increases but there is

evidence of adaptation contrary to Oishi et. Al.• Some evidence of life satisfaction increase for

females but not lasting and results insignificant. • Why so little impact on subjective well-being in

general?• Costs associated with moving? Included some

potential costs and no change in significance of results.

• Perhaps lack of space not detrimental to life satisfaction (Fujiwara, 2013) regardless of improvement in housing satisfaction.

8


Summary of Results

9

Notes *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1

Life Satisfaction GHQ Caseness Housing Satisfaction Males Females Males Females Males Females1-2 years before 0.0463 0.0057 0.232 -0.111 -0.261*** -0.337***

-0.0618 -0.0646 -0.167 -0.187 -0.093 -0.08880-1 year before 0.0394 -0.0119 0.304 0.248 -0.767*** -0.754***

-0.0704 -0.0678 -0.188 -0.206 -0.108 -0.0910-1 year after 0.0373 0.121 0.12 0.171 0.565*** 0.883***

-0.0827 -0.0764 -0.19 -0.233 -0.137 -0.1161-2 years after 0.0339 0.0357 0.0742 0.073 0.219 0.626***

-0.0848 -0.0772 -0.204 -0.223 -0.136 -0.1192-3 years after 0.119 0.00979 -0.0907 -0.0752 0.0359 0.462***

-0.0918 -0.0775 -0.194 -0.236 -0.138 -0.1213-4 years after 0.104 0.0111 0.0786 0.0109 0.0223 0.296**

-0.093 -0.0817 -0.215 -0.234 -0.144 -0.126

Observations 1,650 2,028 1,911 2,328 1,657 2,031R-squared 0.057 0.079 0.07 0.09 0.244 0.322Number of pid 497 608 516 626 497 608

the grass is always greener?

Documents