Household Mobility Research Articles

Housing and neighborhoods and a new national household panel

This paper considers the potential value of a new household panel to help understand issues related to housing and neighborhood conditions in the United States. The key scientific and policy issues that a panel study would be particularly valuable for addressing are primarily descriptive and include evaluating durations of exposures to housing and neighborhood conditions, and understanding factors determining household mobility that in turn determines the conditions that households experience and neighborhood compositions. For these purposes a national household panel has important advantages over existing data sources, and we offer several suggestions for key data elements to collect to maximize the information available for research in this area. We are agnostic about whether the creation of a new national household panel would be more valuable than devoting resources to enhancing the existing Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID).

Flood protection and endogenous sorting of households: the role of credit constraints

Human migration is increasingly seen as a promising climate change adaptation and flood risk reduction strategy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how spatial differences in flood risk, due to differences in flood protection, reduce the mobility of vulnerable households through a credit constraint mechanism. Using an equilibrium model with two households types and endogenous sorting, we show how spatial differences in flood protection lead to clustering of vulnerable households in a risky region, in a real-world setting of common United States (US) flood zones. We find clustering effects of some size for flood zones with return periods of less than 30 years.

Family and housing instability: Longitudinal impact on adolescent emotional and behavioral well-being

This study investigated the longitudinal effects of family structure changes and housing instability in adolescence on functioning in the transition to adulthood. A model examined the influence of household composition changes and mobility in context of ethnic differences and sociodemographic risks. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health measured household and residential changes over a 12-month period among a nationally representative sample of adolescents. Assessments in young adulthood measured rates of depression, criminal activity, and smoking. Findings suggested housing mobility in adolescence predicted poorer functioning across outcomes in young adulthood, and youth living in multigenerational homes exhibited greater likelihood to be arrested than adolescents in single-generation homes. However, neither family structure changes nor its interaction with residential instability or ethnicity related to young adult outcomes. Findings emphasized the unique influence of housing mobility in the context of dynamic household compositions.

Application of Low-Carbon Technologies for Cutting Household GHG Emissions

This article attempts to evaluate the potential of greenhouse gas emission reduction from power and transportation needs in a household by introducing a solar photovoltaic array and an electric vehicle. The study is based on analysis of data collected from a case study household and a photovoltaic unit located in Latvia. Results show that a small-sized photovoltaic system can ensure around 40% of daily electricity demand of a four-person household on an average summer day. In addition, introducing additional electric vehicle load is helpful for cutting greenhouse gas emissions related to household mobility. In the best case scenario, CO2 balance can be improved by 60−90%.

Income mobility of elderly households in Korea

AbstractAccording to the life‐cycle hypothesis, income is likely to decline in old age and individuals must consume out of previously accumulated savings. In this study, a secondary analysis of South Korean Retirement and Income Study data for the period 2005–2011 is carried out to investigate the income mobility of older households (i.e., those over 50 years of age) in South Korea. In particular, it was observed how income and consumption patterns change according to income mobility and identify those factors influencing income mobility by means of multinomial logistic regression. The changes in income pattern presented show that the unchanged and upwardly mobile groups substantially rely on income from work. Moreover, the changes in consumption pattern show that the proportion of food increased in 2011 for the unchanged and downward groups. Other items that significantly increased in proportion between 2005 and 2011 in the unchanged and downward groups were clothing, transportation/communication, health and medical expenses, and durable goods, while culture, education, and other consumption expenditure decreased. Finally, it was found that that the factors influencing income mobility include age, gender, and having one's own house.

The private problem with public service: rural teachers in educational markets

Staffing rural and remote schools is an important policy issue for the public good. This paper examines the private issues it also poses for teachers with families working in these communities, as they seek to reconcile careers with educational choices for children. The paper first considers historical responses to staffing rural and remote schools in Australia, and the emergence of neoliberal policy encouraging marketisation of the education sector. We report on interviews about considerations motivating household mobility with 11 teachers across regional, rural and remote communities in Queensland. Like other middle-class parents, these teachers prioritised their children's educational opportunities over career opportunities. The analysis demonstrates how teachers in rural and remote communities constitute a special group of educational consumers with insider knowledge and unique dilemmas around school choice. Their heightened anxieties around school choice under neoliberal policy are shown to contribute to the public issue of staffing rural and remote schools.

Analyzing the mobile "digital divide": changing determinants of household phone ownership over time in rural bangladesh.

BackgroundWe had a unique opportunity to examine demographic determinants of household mobile phone ownership in rural Bangladesh using socioeconomic data collected as part of a multiyear longitudinal cohort study of married women of reproductive age.ObjectivesThis paper explores how the demographics of household mobile phone owners have changed over time in a representative population of rural Bangladesh.MethodsWe present data collected between 2008 and 2011 on household mobile phone ownership and related characteristics including age, literacy, education, employment, electricity access, and household wealth among 35,306 individuals. Respondents were enrolled when found to be newly pregnant and contributed socioeconomic information once over the course of the time period serving as a “sample” of families within the population at that time. Univariate and multiple logistic regressions analyses were performed to identify the socioeconomic determinants of household phone ownership.ResultsAcross 3 fiscal years, we found that reported household ownership of at least 1 working mobile phone grew from 29.85% in the first fiscal year to 56.07% in the third fiscal year. Illiteracy, unavailability of electricity, and low quartiles of wealth were identified as overall demographic constraints to mobile phone ownership. However, over time, these barriers became less evident and equity gaps among demographic status began to dissipate as access to mobile technology became more democratized. We saw a high growth rate in ownership among households in lower economic standing (illiterate, without electricity, low and lowest wealth index), likely a result of competitive pricing and innovative service packages that improve access to mobile phones as the mobile phone market matures. In contrast, as market saturation is rapidly attained in the most privileged demographics (literate, secondary schooling, electricity, high wealth index), members of the lower wealth quartiles seem to be following suit, with more of an exponential growth.ConclusionsUpward trends in household mobile phone ownership in vulnerable populations over time underline the potential to leverage this increasingly ubiquitous infrastructure to extend health and finance services across social and economic strata.

Spatial Transferability of a Microresidential Mobility Model in the Integrated Land Use, Transportation, and Environment Modeling System

This paper presents the spatial transferability analysis of a micro-behavioral model from the residential mobility component of the integrated land use, transportation, and environment (ILUTE) modeling system developed and implemented in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, Ontario, Canada. The study examined whether ILUTE could be spatially transferred with the current model components to a different geographic area: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The residential mobility component within ILUTE is a continuous-time, hazard-based duration model, developed with retrospective survey data from the Residential Mobility Survey 2 in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. This study developed a similar continuous-time, hazard-based duration model for the residential mobility decisions of households in Halifax on the basis of retrospective survey data from a household mobility and travel survey. The model results suggested that households in Halifax and the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area exhibited profound differences in residential mobility decisions. Sociodemographic, dwelling, and neighborhood characteristics significantly affected residential mobility decisions in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. The effects of land use and accessibility measures were noteworthy for Halifax. For instance, home-to-work distances in Halifax affected the decision to move; however, such an effect could not be confirmed in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. Households' first periods of residence after household formation in a residential location were shorter in Halifax than in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. It was concluded that the direct transfer of micromodels from one spatial context to another could be difficult.

Salzburg Residential Mobility Model

In order to study the mobility of households in Salzburg, an agent-based model was developed in NetLogo to simulate residential mobility. A number of predefined parameters such as income, rent, and income distribution were derived from existing statistics. These parameters were used to tune the model to real-world data. However, it is not possible to build an agent-based model (ABM) that coincides perfectly with the real world. The purpose of an ABM is to break down complexity and emphasize the role of certain events in a phenomenon. The model presented in this paper highlights the role of income and rent/housing costs in deciding the spatial location of an agent within a city. The model also stresses the possibility of finding segregation within Salzburg. Segregation is the clustering of similar agents based upon characteristics such as ethnicity, race, or income. The model finally shows that at least within this modeling approach, tolerance towards neighbors does not play a major role within the process of segregation, while rent and income have a major influence on the housing behavior.

A Mobile Robot for Fall Detection for Elderly-Care

Abstract In 2015, the population of people over the age of 65 is 25.0% in Japan. This means that Japan has already become a super-aging society. In such society, the number of elderly people living alone has been also increased. For such people, a fall accident is serious because it can lead to serious injury or death. Researches and services to monitor behaviours of such people have been proposed. For example, by monitoring the status of use of home appliances, something unusual happened to them can be predicted. However, such systems cannot recognize the detailed behaviours like fall. Surveillance cameras have been introduced only outside the house because of the privacy issues. In this paper, we propose a mobile robot to detect human fall and report it to their observers. The mobile robot consists of a household mobile robot (Yujin Robot's Kobuki), a sensor (Microsoft's Kinect), and a computer (PC) to detect a human and control the robot. For simplicity of the robot and accurate fall detection, the sensor is installed on the robot to follow the target harmoniously. Thus, the sensor can move around with the robot to minimize blind area. The results of our experiments show that improvement of up to 80% in fall detection rate compared to a conventional monitoring technique using position-fixed sensors. Finally, we discuss the capabilities and future works of the robot.

Investigating the Role of Built Environment and Lifestyle Choices in Active Travel for Weekly Home-Based Nonwork Trips

This paper examines the influence of the built environment and individual lifestyle choices on weekly frequency of active transportation (AT) for home-based nonwork trips in the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada. The growing trend of auto-oriented lifestyle choices and dependency not only intensifies environmental emissions and energy use but leads to decreased AT use for daily activities. Studies show that the built environment plays a significant role in active mode choice for nonwork trips, which are more flexible in time and location. However, research investigating the effect of lifestyle and attitudes combined with built-environment attributes for AT use has been limited, particularly for weeklong nonwork trips. Accordingly, this study investigated weekly active travel for nonwork trips on the basis of data from the Halifax Household Mobility and Travel Survey. Factor analysis captured the effects of lifestyle choices and attitudes, which were categorized by individuals' attitudes toward (a) travel modes and (b) land use and the environment. From loading the factors of the lifestyle choice variables, nine attitudinal variables were obtained. The study employed an ordered probit modeling framework to examine relative contributions of relevant socioeconomic characteristics, built-environment attributes, and attitudinal factors. Model results revealed that attitudes and factors of lifestyle choice played important roles in weekly AT frequency for nonwork trips. For example, individuals with prowalk–probike and protransit attitudes were likely to use AT more frequently for non-work-related trips than their counterparts. Although the impact of individuals' attitudes on AT trips was evident, this model also demonstrated that the built environment significantly influences the frequency of AT trips.

Personal car or shared car? Predicting potential modal shifts from multinomial logit models and bootstrap confidence intervals

Daily household mobility in France is characterised by the supremacy of the automobile. The main objective of this paper is to explain the modal choice of French households for their daily trips and to predict potential shifts from personal car to shared car. A multinomial logit model is estimated and reveals the particular importance of motorisation on modal choices. A conditional logit model is also estimated and shows no particular importance of the costs in the shared car deployment. Moreover, the increase in distances between 2010 and 2020 makes motorised modes more necessary. Simulations show that personal car should remain the main mode of transportation by 2020 except if households have no car. In that case, public transport would become the main transport mode and the shift to shared car would be at a maximum. Thus, personal car and public transport should remain the main modes of transportation by 2020.

Influence of Weather on Transport Demand

In times of increasing travel demand, urban transport systems are under continuous stress. Knowledge of the impact of weather on any given day needs to be obtained for efficient operation of the system. Although it is expected that weather-related impacts will not dominate travel demand (e.g., work trips cannot be easily omitted), trips may be delayed or different modes may be chosen. It is well known that transport systems that operate close to capacity react highly nonlinearly to additional demand. Thus, changes in weather might lead to totally different settings for the management of the transport systems. This paper provides evidence of the influence of weather on travel demand for the greater Vienna, Austria, region. Long-term household mobility surveys were used for a descriptive analysis of the influence of weather on travel behavior. Statistical modeling of smaller mobility surveys allowed extrapolation to new situations, as well as an analysis of the joint influence of several variables. Significant evidence was provided that weather had a strong influence on the mobility choices of a large part of the population. The results emphasized that the weather impact depends heavily on the mode and purpose of the trip and the characteristics of the traveler. The results of the study can be used at the aggregate level to predict the impact of weather on traffic demand. This information is important for the management of transport system supply and demand, for ensuring the efficiency of urban transportation systems.

Intra-household Interactions in tour-based mode choice: The role of social, temporal, spatial and resource constraints

Under social, temporal, spatial and resource constraints, household members interact and search for ways to fulfil household and individual needs, one of which is travelling together. Understanding the motivation for joint household travel and its effect on an individual’s mode choices is critical to the formulation of transport policies and planning practices for sustainable transport choices. This paper examines individuals’ mode choices with joint household travel being explicitly incorporated within a nested logit model using the Sydney Household Travel Survey data and a typology of tours that captures various patterns of household interactions. The results indicate that joint travel is influenced by household resources, social and mobility constraints, activity types, and the land use patterns at both origin and destination. Also, mode choices differ significantly across joint tour patterns with public transport being less likely to be used for joint travel. Scenario analysis shows that individual tours contribute the most while complex joint tours contribute least to modal shifts from car to public transport which results from changes to transport policies and the level of services. Contrary to suggestions in the literature, a joint household (as compared to individual) travel analysis does not necessarily identify a lower modal shift for policy outcomes.

L'évolution en Europe du profil des ménages propriétaires pendant la crise

La volonté de posséder son « chez soi » et de se constituer un patrimoine est largement généralisée en Europe. La baisse des taux d’intérêt au cours des années 2000 et la concurrence accrue entre établissements bancaires ont favorisé la distribution du crédit avant que la crise financière de 2007 ne remette en question ces évolutions. Malgré des mesures publiques de soutien au secteur immobilier, la chute du crédit (dans un contexte d’assainissement du bilan des banques et de ralentissement de la croissance du revenu des ménages) s’est accompagnée, après une décennie de boom immobilier, d’une baisse des prix immobiliers dans de nombreux pays européens. L’exception notable étant l’Allemagne où après dix ans de baisse, les prix se sont stabilisés au milieu des années 2000 et remontent même depuis 2010. Face à ces évolutions, nous observons ici dans quelle mesure d’une part la mobilité des ménages a évolué et d’autre part le contexte macroéconomique a modifié le profil des ménages qui achètent. Nos régressions logit confirment que les premières victimes du resserrement des conditions de crédit ont été les ménages les plus jeunes et/ou les plus modestes. Dans l’ensemble des pays étudiés (Allemagne, Espagne, France, Italie et Royaume-Uni), les ménages modestes ont vu leur probabilité d’achat fortement réduite et ce même en Allemagne où la probabilité d’achat des autres ménages a eu tendance à stagner voire à croître. La probabilité d’achat des ménages de moins de 30 ans a particulièrement baissé en Espagne. Seule exception, la France, où le maintien de conditions de crédit assez favorables, la réforme du prêt à taux zéro et l’augmentation des donations ont permis aux jeunes de continuer à acheter dans les mêmes proportions. Classification JEL : D14, E21, R21, R31, R38.

IMPACT OF VICTIMIZATION ON RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY: EXPLAINING RACIAL AND ETHNIC PATTERNS USING THE NATIONAL CRIME VICTIMIZATION SURVEY

Criminal victimization is known to influence households’ moving decisions, but theories suggest that the processes leading to a moving decision can vary across racial and ethnic groups. Drawing from current literature, we hypothesized that victimization would have a stronger effect on moving decisions for Whites than for Blacks or Hispanics, and that racial/ethnic residential segregation would moderate the impact of victimization on mobility. Using a longitudinal sample of 34,134 housing units compiled from the National Crime Victimization Survey for the 40 largest metropolitan areas in the United States (1995–2003), we found results that both support and contradict the hypotheses. Specifically, White residents display consistent evidence that victimization is a significant predictor of household mobility. Blacks and Hispanics, in contrast, are more varied in their moving behavior after victimization. In addition, significant differences exist among these groups in responses to victimization and in how mobility is influenced by residential segregation. Higher levels of residential segregation play a part in the victimization–mobility relationship among Blacks in a way that is more complex than we hypothesized.

How does home equity affect mobility?

The impact of the housing crash on household mobility is theoretically ambiguous. Households that have little or negative equity are less likely to move because the proceeds from the sale of the home may not be large enough to pay off the original mortgage and provide a sufficient down payment on a new home. On the other hand, at sufficiently negative levels of home equity, household mobility may actually increase through the foreclosure channel. In this paper we develop and empirically test a model that incorporates both of these mechanisms. Our empirical results – based on data for Florida homeowners – provide evidence of a non-monotonic relationship between home equity and mobility. Although default-induced mobility did increase following the financial crisis, this increase did little to offset the substantial decline in voluntary moves due to home equity lock-in; we find that on net, household mobility declined by roughly 25% in our sample because of reductions in equity.

Electoral participation and intergenerational transmission among Turkish migrants in Western Europe

This study investigates whether immigration affects the extent to which children of migrants are likelier to vote if their parents vote (and vice versa). It combines intergenerational transmission theories with migrant political participation theories. Existing studies of migration and intergenerational transmission mainly focus on (Latino) immigrants in the United States and have not assessed migration’s true impact through comparison with non-migrants from the origin society. This study analyses unique data on Turkey-Europe migration, which include migrant and non-migrant child-parent dyads, applying logistic regression analysis. The results show a clear ‘intrahousehold similarity in electoral participation’ among migrant dyads in European national elections, which is weaker (but present) among the non-migrant dyads in Turkey. Though migration thus seems to strengthen transmission, the effect is only present if the child grew up in Europe, suggesting that children also stimulate their parents’ political engagement. Additionally, results show that the electoral participation of parents in the Turkish elections is not associated with the electoral participation of the adult children in the European national elections. Taken together, the analyses indicate that the underlying mechanism of transmission is not just one of (two-way) political socialization; ‘household mobilization’ also plays an important role.

Rethinking the two-body problem: the segregation of women into geographically dispersed occupations.

Empirical research on the family cites the tendency for couples to relocate for husbands' careers as evidence against the gender neutrality of household economic decisions. For these studies, occupational segregation is a concern because occupations are not random by sex and mobility is not random by occupation. I find that the tendency for households to relocate for husbands' careers is better explained by the segregation of women into geographically dispersed occupations rather than by the direct prioritization of men's careers. Among never-married workers, women relocate for work less often than men, and the gender effect disappears after occupational segregation is accounted for. Although most two-earner families feature husbands in geographically clustered jobs involving frequent relocation for work, families are no less likely to relocate for work when it belongs to the wife. I conclude that future research in household mobility should treat occupational segregation occurring prior to marriage rather than gender bias within married couples as the primary explanation for the prioritization of husbands' careers in household mobility decisions.

Association between muscle power impairment and WHODAS 2.0 in older adults with physical disability in Taiwan

Purpose: To explore the association between muscle power impairment and each World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule second edition (WHODAS 2.0) domain score among subjects with physical disability. Methods: Subjects (≥60 years) with physical disability related to neurological diseases, including 730 subjects with brain disease (BD) and 126 subjects with non-BD, were enrolled from a data bank of persons with disabilities from 1 July 2011 to 29 February 2012. Standardized WHODAS 2.0 scores ranging from 0 (least difficulty) to 100 (greatest difficulty) points were calculated for each domain. Results: More than 50% of subjects with physical disability had the greatest difficulty in household activities and mobility. Muscle power impairment (adjusted odds ratios range among domains, 2.75–376.42, p < 0.001), age (1.38–4.81, p < 0.05), and speech impairment (1.94–5.80, p < 0.05) were associated with BD subjects experiencing the greatest difficulty in most WHODAS 2.0 domains. But a few associated factors were identified for the non-BD group in the study. Conclusions: Although the patterns of difficulty in most daily activities were similar between the BD and non-BD groups, factors associated with the difficulties differed between those two groups. Muscle power impairment, age and speech impairment were important factors associated with difficulties in subjects with BD-related physical disability.Implications for RehabilitationOlder adults with physical disability often experience difficulties in household activities and mobility.Muscle power impairment is associated with difficulties in daily life in subjects with physical disability related to brain disease.Those subjects with brain disease who had older age, a greater degree of muscle power impairment, and the presence of speech impairment were at higher risk of experiencing difficulties in most daily activities.