Are Homeowners Happier than Tenants? Empirical Evidence for Switzerland

Zimmermann, Yvonne Seiler; Wanzenried, Gabrielle

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-05535-6_14

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…From a methodological point of view, it becomes visible that previous studies which find a significant positive relationship between SWB and homeownership, e.g. (Rossi and Weber, 1996;Rohe and Basolo, 1997;Ruprah, 2010;Seiler Zimmermann and Wanzenried, 2019;Zhang and Zhang, 2019), did not use individual or time fixed effects. On the other hand, studies that did use two-way fixed effects, e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In Debt but Still Happy? Examining the Relationship between Homeownership and Life Satisfaction

Will¹,

Renz²

2021

28th Annual European Real Estate Society Conference

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We investigate the relationship between homeownership and life as well as housing satisfaction. Using panel data from Germany, we find that compared to renting, owning a home positively impacts housing satisfaction. Contrarily, we find no significant effects on life satisfaction in the long-term. Analysing short-term effects in an event-study design, we show that both life and housing satisfaction anticipate the event and adapt shortly after. Debt-free buyers, however, do not experience anticipation or adaptation effects at all. Comparing outright homebuyers to debt-financing owners, we show that having a real estate loan impacts homeowners' life satisfaction negatively. Paying off a loan does not differently affect the housing satisfaction of both types of buyers. We conclude that the negative effect of loan payments on life satisfaction offsets the positive impact of homeownership.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In Debt but Still Happy? Examining the Relationship between Homeownership and Life Satisfaction

Will¹,

Renz²

2021

28th Annual European Real Estate Society Conference

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“…Many studies use self-reported life satisfaction as a proxy measure for individual welfare to gauge the overall effects of home ownership on an individual level. In line with the belief that home ownership makes people happy, studies typically find a positive correlation between home ownership and subjective well-being (see, e.g., (Rossi & Weber, 1996 ) for the United States, (Stillman & Liang, 2010 ) for Australia; (Ruprah, 2010 ) for Latin America, (Hu, 2013 ) for urban China, (Zumbro, 2014 ), and (Clark & Diaz Serrano, 2020 ) for Germany, or (Seiler-Zimmermann & Wanzenried, 2019 ) for Switzerland).…”

Section: The Role Of (Biased) Beliefs In Choice and Well-beingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does the Dream of Home Ownership Rest Upon Biased Beliefs? A Test Based on Predicted and Realized Life Satisfaction

Odermatt

Stutzer

2022

J Happiness Stud

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The belief that home ownership makes people happy is probably one of the most widespread intuitive theories of happiness. However, whether it is accurate is an open question. Based on individual panel data, we explore whether home buyers systematically overestimate the life satisfaction associated with moving to their privately owned property. To identify potential prediction errors, we compare people’s forecasts of their life satisfaction in 5 years’ time with their current realizations. We find that home buyers for whom the purchase of the home is a main reason for moving, on average, systematically overestimate the long-term satisfaction gain of living in their dwelling. The misprediction therein is driven by home buyers who follow extrinsically-oriented life goals, highlighting biased beliefs regarding own preferences as a relevant mechanism in the prediction errors.

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“…Marital status is first measured on a 5-point scale of 1 = married, 2 = single, 3 = widowed, 4 = divorced, and 5 = separated, and then recoded as a binary dummy variable with 1 = married and 0 otherwise. Because homeowners tend to have a higher level of life satisfaction than tenants [ 33 , 34 ], the household characteristics include homeownership as well as number of children, with homeownership being a binary variable equal to 1 if the respondent owns his/her dwelling (0 otherwise).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The intangible costs of overweight and obesity in Germany

2023

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Background Previous literature documents the direct and indirect economic costs of obesity, yet none has attempted to quantify the intangible costs of obesity. This study focuses on quantifying the intangible costs of one unit body mass index (BMI) increase and being overweight and obese in Germany. Methods By applying a life satisfaction-based compensation value analysis to 2002–2018 German Socio-Economic Panel Survey data for adults aged 18–65, the intangible costs of overweight and obesity are estimated. We apply individual income as a reference for estimating the value of the loss of subjective well-being due to overweight and obesity. Results The intangible costs of overweight and obesity in 2018 amount to 42,450 and 13,853 euros, respectively. A one unit increase in BMI induced a 2553 euros annual well-being loss in the overweight and obese relative to those of normal weight. When extrapolated to the entire country, this figure represents approximately 4.3 billion euros, an intangible cost of obesity similar in magnitude to the direct and indirect costs documented in other studies for Germany. These losses, our analysis reveals, have remained remarkably stable since 2002. Conclusions Our results underscore how existing research into obesity’s economic toll may underestimate its true costs, and they strongly imply that if obesity interventions took the intangible costs of obesity into account, the economic benefits would be considerably larger.

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Are Homeowners Happier than Tenants? Empirical Evidence for Switzerland

Cited by 8 publications

References 20 publications

In Debt but Still Happy? Examining the Relationship between Homeownership and Life Satisfaction

In Debt but Still Happy? Examining the Relationship between Homeownership and Life Satisfaction

Does the Dream of Home Ownership Rest Upon Biased Beliefs? A Test Based on Predicted and Realized Life Satisfaction

The intangible costs of overweight and obesity in Germany

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