Gender, Marital Status, and Homeownership in Australia

Abstract

This paper compares the housing tenure choices of never married women, never married men, and married couples in an analysis of the significance of gender and marital status in access to homeownership in Australia. A logit model of tenure choice is estimated for each of these groups for both 1982 and 1990, and the differences in ownership rates among the three groups are decomposed into "endowment" and "residual" effects. Endowment effects are due to the objective, measurable characteristics of households, while residual effects are due to discrimination or differences in tastes that are not measured. The results suggest that there is little likelihood of discrimination on the basis of gender or marital status because the residual differences act to decrease, rather than increase, group mean differences.