Homeownership and Wealth in Switzerland and Germany

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Ressource 1Download: Kuhn-Grabka2018_Chapter_HomeownershipAndWealthInSwitzerland.pdf (341.40 [Ko])
State: Public
Version: author
Serval ID
serval:BIB_8D626F46D3C0
Type
A part of a book
Publication sub-type
Chapter: chapter ou part
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Homeownership and Wealth in Switzerland and Germany
Title of the book
Life Course Research and Social Policies
Author(s)
Kuhn Ursina, Grabka Markus
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
ISBN
9783319895567
9783319895574
ISSN
2211-7776
2211-7784
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2018
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Editor
Tillmann Robin, Voorpostel Marieke, Farago Peter
Volume
9
Series
Life Course Research and Social Policies book series
Pages
175-185
Language
english
Abstract
Property wealth represents the most important wealth component in nearly all OECD countries. Homeownership is linked to wealth accumulation in several ways: Wealthier households are more likely to buy a house or apartment, home owners tend to save more and rising house values typically yield higher returns than money in a bank account. Moreover, owners can borrow on a mortgage to finance, e.g., the formation of an enterprise or other economic activities. At the aggregate level, these relations can explain why countries with low rates of homeownership tend to have a high wealth inequality.
This paper looks at wealth and homeownership in Germany and Switzerland. These countries show the lowest proportion of owner-occupiers in Europe and a high wealth inequality. We analyse to what extent this high inequality can be explained by homeownership status. In the first part of this contribution, we review explanations for the low share of owner-occupiers in the two countries. In the second part, we analyse wealth and homeownership empirically using data of the SHP and the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) from 2012. We make use of decomposition methods to analyse how renter and owner households differ in wealth levels and wealth inequality.
Open Access
Yes
Create date
20/06/2018 7:42
Last modification date
20/08/2019 14:51
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