Household Types Research Articles

Who does new trips and why?: An analysis toward the modeling of induced demand

ABSTRACT Improvements in infrastructure capacity and travel conditions including the introduction of a new transport mode can induce changes in traffic. Although this can occur through a variety of behavioral mechanisms, in this study, the main focus is on the increase of individual mobility rates – namely induced trips. A three-step methodological framework is proposed to identify and model-induced trips, along with the development of discrete choice models, which is the first step of the framework and acts as its foundation. Multinomial logit (MNL) and nested logit (NL) models are estimated, with trip frequencies as the dependent variable. Factors such as age, household type, household car ownership, the number of children and trip reason are found to be influential on the decision of making new trips. Results also suggest that shared mobility significantly paves way to new trips. The contributions from this study can support in understanding the reasons behind the generation of new trips and devise pertinent policies.

Gentrification and the suburbanization of poverty: evidence from a highly regulated housing system

ABSTRACT There is growing evidence of a suburbanization of poverty in the context of accelerating gentrification, particularly in liberal housing systems. To what extent are similar processes occurring in highly regulated housing systems that undergo gentrification? To scrutinize this, we use a novel dataset covering all 997,497 residential relocations differentiated by household income and household type in the period between 2011 and 2018 for the case of Vienna, Austria. Drawing on GIS mapping and descriptive statistics, we find limited evidence of a systematic relocation of low-income households from gentrifying central areas or even to the suburbs, yet significantly higher mobility rates among this group. We argue, based on policy analysis and multivariate statistics, that this is a product of Vienna’s tenure segmented housing system. While the gentrifying private rental sector in the urban core is characterized by high levels of precarity, regularly pushing low-income residents to move house, entry barriers to other market segments “trap” many of them in this sector under insecure conditions. Our results raise broader questions about the context in the debate around gentrification and suburbanizing poverty and call for greater attention to detrimental impacts of gentrification on housing and life course trajectories of low-income residents without pronounced spatial displacement.

HOUSEHOLD DEBT AND THE EFFECTS OF FISCAL POLICY

AbstractWe examine how the effects of government spending shocks depend on the balance sheet position of households. Employing U.S. household survey data, we find a large, positive consumption response for households with mortgage debt, smaller response for renters, and an insignificant response for outright homeowners, in response to a positive government spending shock. We consider a model with three types of households and show that it can successfully account for these findings. Liquidity constraints and wealth effects play a crucial role in shock propagation. Our findings suggest the importance of household mortgage debt position in the transmission mechanism of fiscal policy.

The Home Environment Is a Reservoir for Methicillin-Resistant Coagulase-Negative Staphylococci and Mammaliicocci.

Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) and mammaliicocci are opportunistic human and animal pathogens, often resistant to multiple antimicrobials, including methicillin. Methicillin-resistant CoNS (MRCoNS) have traditionally been linked to hospitals and healthcare facilities, where they are significant contributors to nosocomial infections. However, screenings of non-hospital environments have linked MRCoNS and methicillin-resistant mammaliicocci (MRM) to other ecological niches. The aim of this study was to explore the home environment as a reservoir for MRCoNS and MRM. A total of 33 households, including households with a dog with a methicillin-resistant staphylococcal infection, households with healthy dogs or cats and households without pets, were screened for MRCoNS and MRM by sampling one human, one pet (if present) and the environment. Samples were analyzed by a selective culture-based method, and bacterial species were identified by MALDI-TOF MS and tested for antibiotic susceptibility by the agar disk diffusion method. Following whole-genome sequencing, a large diversity of SCCmec elements and sequence types was revealed, which did not indicate any clonal dissemination of specific strains. Virulome and mobilome analyses indicated a high degree of species specificity. Altogether, this study documents that the home environment is a reservoir for a variety of MRCoNS and MRM regardless of the type of household.

Differences in Socioeconomic, Dietary Choice, and Nutrition Environment Explanatory Variables for Food and Nutrition Security among Households with and without Children.

This study's purpose was to compare socioeconomic, dietary choice, and nutrition environment variables associated with food and nutrition security in USA households with and without children. Data were collected in 2021 and consisted of households at risk of or experiencing food insecurity. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify significant explanatory variables for food and nutrition security by household type-with or without children (<18 years of age). Food insecurity rates were 74% and 64% in households with and without children, respectively. Nutrition insecurity rates were 38% and 30% in households with and without children, respectively. For both household types, greater dietary choice increased odds (4-15 times) of food and nutrition security. In households with children, more fast-food meals increased the odds (60%) of food security, while more processed meals and greater utilization barriers to healthful meals decreased the odds (40-50%). Greater utilization barriers also decreased the odds (20%) of food security in households without children. In households with children, higher income and greater healthfulness choice increased the odds (20% and 3 times) of nutrition security, while low (vs. high) perceived limited availability of foods doubled the odds in households without children. Dietary choice is an influential and crucial factor of food and nutrition security.

Imperfect competition in the banking sector and economic instability

We study the impact of competition in the banking sector on the emergence of endogenous cycles driven by self-fulling volatile expectations. We consider an OLG model with two sectors and two household types: workers, who consume and work when young and save through bank deposits; and entrepreneurs, who seek bank loans to finance current consumption and to invest in a productive technology that transforms the consumption good into capital. When old, entrepreneurs rent this capital to firms, who produce the consumption good using capital and labor. All markets are perfectly competitive, except the loans market where banks compete à la Cournot under free entry and exit.In the absence of externalities in the capital producing technology, more competition in the banking sector promotes the emergence of local indeterminacy and sunspots fluctuations. In contrast, under constant social returns to scale in the capital producing technology, bank market power alone triggers the emergence of local indeterminacy. With increasing social returns to scale, both market power and externalities facilitate the emergence of local indeterminacy. Additionally, when banks have market power, steady state multiplicity may emerge, opening the way to global indeterminacy and fluctuations.

Inequalities in Academic Work during COVID-19: The Intersection of Gender, Class, and Individuals’ Life-Course Stage

Research studies on academic work and the COVID-19 crisis have clearly shown that the pandemic crisis contributed to exacerbating pre-existing gender gaps. Although the research has been extensive in this regard, it has focused more on the widening of the “motherhood penalty”, while other groups of academics are blurred. Even more underinvestigated and not yet fully explained are the intersections between further axes of diversity, often because the research conducted during the pandemic was based on a small volume of in-depth data. By drawing on interview data from a wider national research project, this article aims to contribute to this debate by adopting an intersectional approach. In investigating daily working life and work–life balance during the pandemic of a highly heterogeneous sample of 127 Italian academics, this article sheds light on how gender combines with other axes of asymmetry, particularly class (precarious versus stable and prestigious career positions) and age (individuals’ life-course stage), to produce specific conditions of interrelated (dis)advantage for some academics. The analysis reveals three household and family life course types that embody the interlocking of gender, class, and age within a specific social location with unequal, and possibly long-term, consequences for the quality of working life, well-being, and careers of academics, living alone or with parents, couples without children or with grown-up children, and couples with young children and other family members in need of care.

Asset bubbles and wealth inequality

AbstractWe examine the causal link between asset bubbles and wealth inequality in a two‐agent macroeconomic model. Bubbles influence wealth inequality through two channels: altering the debt–asset ratio and fuelling speculation. When bubbles grow, they can temporarily decrease wealth inequality if asset prices rise faster than debt. However, when they burst, wealth inequality increases as the debt–asset ratio rises. Steady‐state wealth inequality is unaffected by bubbles if household types share symmetric speculative timing. Although macroprudential policy, communication, and leaning against the wind can reduce negative bubble effects on aggregate utility, they have a limited effect on wealth inequality.

Assessing the household burdens of infrastructure disruptions in Texas during Winter Storm Uri

In February 2021, severe winter weather conditions associated with Winter Storm Uri triggered an energy infrastructure failure in Texas. Most Texans lost electricity, some lost potable water, natural gas, and suffered other infrastructure-related service disruptions that had profound household consequences. Although several studies have documented the disparities in terms of the types and extent of disruptions Texans experienced during Uri, there is little information about the impact of these disruptions in terms of their burdens on households. Guided by the Capabilities Approach framework, a survey of Texan households was conducted to identify the outage characteristics and capability losses for different household types, as well as the burdens that those disruptions posed to households using both objective and subjective measures. Our results indicate that households that endured longer and constant electricity outages suffered more severe impacts across all measures, including more disrupted household capabilities, increased time, and financial costs to cope during the outages, as well as greater declines in reported life satisfaction. We found that low-income households, households with children, and households with disability challenges suffered more severe objective burdens during the storm, although subjective results for these households were mixed. Households with members over the age of 65 fared better in terms of objective measures, yet suffered more in terms of subjective well-being. Moreover, households that had prior experience with a prolonged outage reported significantly smaller reductions in well-being during the storm than other households, despite not showing any difference in objective measures. Ultimately, our results offer context-specific, post-event information about the impacts and needs of different types of households during Uri that are important for informing emergency management and community resilience planning.

Exploring the impact of dogs on the human-cat relationship in private homes

Abstract Despite the growing numbers of dogs and cats cohabiting in US households, little research has focused on the influence of dogs on the human-animal bond of their feline roommates. The present study investigated whether cohabiting with a dog has an impact on the human-cat bond and the ways in which cats interact with humans. Based on existing knowledge of the differences between human-dog and human-cat interactions, we predicted that cats who have lived with a dog for at least 1 year will exhibit differences in the bond and interaction frequency with their owners. A 46-item survey was administered to 682 US cat owners via social media (SM) and Mechanical Turk (MTurk), Amazon’s crowdsourcing service, to collect data on demographics, interaction frequency, behavioral issues, and pet-owner bond. Although owners in cat-only households tended to report slightly higher bond scores with their cats ( μ SM = 30.34; μ Mturk = 28.32) than owners in mixed households ( μ SM = 29.33; μ Mturk = 27.42), the differences were small, and the association between household type and bond score was not significant ( p SM = 0.973, p MTurk = 0.124). Owners who engaged in more frequent active interactions with their cats had higher bond scores. These results indicate that spending more time engaging in active interactions with one’s cat is associated with a stronger bond, and the frequency of these interactions may be more important than the presence of a cohabiting dog.

Rural Women’s Bargaining over Land Ownership: Evidence from Arable Crop Farming Households in Southwest, Nigeria

Studies have shown that women’s stronger rights to productive assets, particularly land, are linked to household overall welfare due to increased female intra-household bargaining power. Through in-depth interviews with 282 rural women in Ogun State, Nigeria, this study examines women’s involvement in land-related decision-making in their households as well as its socioeconomic determinants. This study models the empirical relationship between women’s land-related bargaining power over land. Women’s land-related bargaining power was estimated with principal component analysis (PCA), and Tobit regression model was used for its determinants. It was found that the women’s mean age was 44 years. On average, the household size was six persons. Women have low bargaining power regarding household land-related decision-making, particularly bequeathing land. Farm households’ land endowment shows that married monogamous households hold an average of 2.64 hectares, cohabiting monogamous households hold 1.82 hectares, and polygamous households hold an average of 4.01 hectares. Women in polygamous household types have lower (19 per cent) access to households’ land through marriage compared to their monogamous counterparts with 61 per cent and 44 per cent for both married and cohabiting monogamous households. 78 per cent of the women have low land-related bargaining power. A mean score of 0.19 was estimated for women’s land-related bargaining power. Women’s land-related bargaining power is influenced by their marital status among other factors; the reverse is the case of their husbands, regardless of whether they are monogamous or polygamous.

Factors Affecting Propensity to Lift-Share for Children’s Activities

Research Problem: Families with children travel by car more frequently than any other household type and hence significantly contribute to transport externalities. Lift-sharing is a potential time-effective and convenient means of mitigating these effects. Whilst some research has been conducted on lift-sharing for the school run, there is little research beyond this context, particularly around lift-sharing for children’s activities (e.g., sport). Study Aim: Consequently, the aim of this study was to assess the current prevalence of lift-sharing (for children’s activities and other types of trips) in families with young children, the factors influencing its uptake, the experiences and attitudes of regular lift-sharers, and whether previous literature findings on reciprocity applied in this context to gain a deeper understanding of how and why families participate in activity lift-sharing. Research Design: A mixed-methods approach was applied, comprising (1) a travel survey of 474 families to establish socio-demographic and activity factors that influence lift-share prevalence for activity trips; and (2) 15 semi-structured interviews with parents to further explore how and why families participate in activity lift-sharing. Results: Factors influencing lift-sharing decisions for activity travel were number of cars owned, number of seats in the car, settlement type, income, time of day and location of the activity, number of children attending, parking availability, whether the activity is a sporting activity or not, and number of close friends of the child at the same activity. Salient motivating factors triggering lift-sharing included intentions to reduce chauffeuring and parents wanting their children to socialise. Trust was an initial imperative component of lift-share formation, and attitudes towards reciprocity supported previous literature findings relating to the variability of acceptable reciprocation and the role of fairness.

Fur and leather products in the system of cultural values of the North peoples

Fur and leather products are regarded as the most significant type of household and artistic crafts in the traditional culture of Nenets and Khants, reflecting the relationship between the natural and cultural environment. The article is based on materials from the author's expeditions to the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

Association between people’s attitudes towards human-elephant conflict and their locational, demographic, and socio-economic characteristics in Buxa Tiger Reserve and its adjoining area, India

“Human-elephant conflict (HEC)”, the alarming issue, in present day context has attracted the attention of environmentalists and policy makers. The rising conflict between human beings and wild elephants is common in Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) and its adjoining area in West Bengal State, India, making the area volatile. People’s attitudes towards elephant conservation activity are very crucial to get rid of HEC, because people’s proximity with wild elephants’ habitat can trigger the occurrence of HEC. The aim of this study is to conduct an in-depth investigation about the association of people’s attitudes towards HEC with their locational, demographic, and socio-economic characteristics in BTR and its adjoining area by using Pearson’s bivariate chi-square test and binary logistic regression analysis. BTR is one of the constituent parts of Eastern Doors Elephant Reserve (EDER). We interviewed 500 respondents to understand their perceptions to HEC and investigated their locational, demographic, and socio-economic characteristics including location of village, gender, age, ethnicity, religion, caste, poverty level, education level, primary occupation, secondary occupation, household type, and source of firewood. The results indicate that respondents who are living in enclave forest villages (EFVs), peripheral forest villages (PFVs), corridor village (CVs), or forest and corridor villages (FCVs), mainly males, at the age of 18–48 years old, engaged with agriculture occupation, and living in kancha and mixed houses, have more likelihood to witness HEC. Besides, respondents who are illiterate or at primary education level are more likely to regard elephant as a main problematic animal around their villages and refuse to participate in elephant conservation activity. For the sake of a sustainable environment for both human beings and wildlife, people’s attitudes towards elephants must be friendly in a more prudent way, so that the two communities can live in harmony.

Strong daily routinisation, weak energy flexibility: a survey study of the stability and adaptability of everyday energy practices

Fundamental changes in everyday consumption patterns are required to mitigate negative environmental impacts, and these include adapting the timing of consumption. For example, flexible energy demand becomes increasingly important in response to larger shares of fluctuating energy production while dynamic electricity pricing suggests there is a need to encourage staggered electricity use. In this paper, we explore the stability, adjustability and flexibility of everyday practices to critically address the potential for flexible household energy demand. Based on a survey questionnaire (N=1,470), the paper takes its empirical focus in the Nordic welfare state Denmark, which has a high share of wind power and little focus on energy justice. Across household groups, it seems that morning routines are strongly routinised, especially on weekdays, and that variations in these primarily involve adjustment to other household members. The analysis indicates that there are differences across household types, for example, households with children and households whose inhabitants are aged 41-60 tend to be associated with stable evening routines, women tend to agree more to adjusting routines to lifestyle and household, while being in employment seems to be associated with stronger dependence on time schedules determined by factors outside the household. The study suggests that socio-temporal rhythms of everyday practices strongly depend on societal rhythms and practices outside the home. It follows therefore that expectations of energy flexibility in household energy demand should initially focus on common temporal patterns and dependence on these rather than on individual households’ (apparent) capacity to consume energy flexibly.

Urban-urban split households in China: Gender, migration, and stay-behind women

The study of split households in China and beyond has traditionally centered on rural-urban migration, overlooking the prevalence of split householding among urban-urban migrants. Despite receiving scant scholarly attention, urban-urban migrant dynamics, particularly concerning relational power negotiation among women in long-distance relationships, warrant exploration. This paper delves into the experiences of urban-urban migrants in China, spotlighting how stay-behind women negotiate relational power within split households. Drawing from 30 in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted with various types of migrant households and focusing on 12 split households, this study sheds light on the relationships of contemporary urban, educated Chinese couples with patriarchal values entrenched in the Confucian family system. The findings reveal that split households expose the tension between entrenched Confucian patriarchy and women’s aspirations for autonomy. While serving as a respite from traditional gender roles, split households inadvertently offer women newfound independence. Although not overtly challenging conventional gender norms, stay-behind women in urban-urban split households leverage agency and empowerment within the existing gender framework. This research underscores the evolving gender dynamics in China, poised between entrenched patriarchy and emerging spaces for alternative gender practices, offering insights into the nuanced experiences of women in split households.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder Due to Household Type and Economic Status during COVID-19 Pandemic: Focusing on Gender Differences

Objectives: This study was conducted to determine whether household type and economic status affect generalized anxiety disorder during COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019).Methods: This study included 5,615 participants from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2021). Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the association between household type, economic status and generalized anxiety disorder. Additionally by combining the two variables of interest, we examined the combined effect of sex on household type and economic status.Results: The unemployed in single person-households had 3.4 times more likely to become a high-risk group for generalized anxiety disorder than the employed in multiple person-households (odds ratio, OR = 3.42, 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.99-5.85). In male, the unemployed in single person-households was 7.1 times more likely to be a high-risk group than the employed in multiple person-households (OR = 7.11, 95% CI: 2.49-20.31) and was 2.8 times more likely to be a high-risk group than the reference group in female (OR = 2.82, 95% CI: 1.46-5.44).Conclusions: This study confirmed that during COVID-19 pandemic, the unemployed and single person-households tended to be a high-risk group for generalized anxiety disorder and differed by sex and age. Therefore, generalized anxiety disorder policies for single person-households and the unemployed and customized welfare by sex are needed.

Women’s involvement in intra-household decision-making and infant and young child feeding practices in Central Asia

This paper examines the relationship between women’s empowerment and infant and young child feeding practices in Central Asia using Demographic and Health Survey datasets collected during 1995–2017. We employ a measure of women’s empowerment with three dimensions that is available for many recent surveys as well as a measure of decision-making power over use of one’s own income present for income-earning mothers in all surveys. We identify a positive association between a woman’s decision-making power—a measure of her instrumental agency—and adherence to World Health Organization–recommended feeding practices. We find little significant association between a woman’s attitude toward domestic violence, or her degree of social independence, and adherence to recommended feeding practices. Our results further show that the association between women’s decision-making power and feeding practices varies little with child gender, whether or not she cohabitates with her mother-in-law, or household wealth. We thus provide evidence from Central Asia that policies and programs intended to empower women can improve child feeding practices, with similar benefits across a variety of household types.

Income Variability of Agricultural Households in Poland: A Descriptive Study

Among the different types of households, agricultural ones are perceived as the most exposed to the problem of income instability. Income fluctuations pose a threat not only to the financial stability of farming families but also to the sustainable development of the agriculture sector. Investigating the scale and factors of the variability of farmers’ household incomes is important in designing and monitoring agricultural policy measures that aim to stabilize farmers’ incomes. In this context, the main objective of this article is to assess the income variability of agricultural households in Poland and to identify the main correlates of farmers’ income fluctuations in the period 1996–2022. To emphasize the significance of the problem of income instability for agricultural households, a comparative assessment of income variability was performed (relative to non-agriculture households). Furthermore, two research subperiods (1996–2003; 2004–2022; before and after EU accession) were distinguished to capture the association between the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) and the stability of agricultural income. The study focusses on associations between variables (regression and correlation analyses were used). The income of agricultural households was shown to exhibit greater variability (year-on-year) than the income of households of workers and of self-employed people, with a lower scale of fluctuations after 2004. Furthermore, the study reveals a group of factors that could be correlated with the variability of the income of agricultural households: income structure (share of income from agriculture), natural and climatic conditions (variability of the yields and agricultural production), and changes in prices of the means of agricultural production. The findings raise, however, a question about the effectiveness of CAP instruments in stabilizing agricultural income.

Do large-scale agricultural entities achieve higher livelihood levels and better environmental outcomes than small households? Evidence from rural China.

There is an ongoing debate about the type or scale of agriculture that should be most encouraged. This study explores the differences in livelihood levels and outcomes between new agricultural business entities (NABEs) and traditional small households. We applied the analytical tools of a sustainable livelihood framework and a multiple linear regression model to describe the determinants of livelihood outcomes of 105 NABEs and 119 traditional small households in two typical areas around the Sichuan Basin in China. The results show that the overall livelihood level of NABEs is 1.40 times higher than traditional small households. NABEs with a mixed livelihood strategy of both planting and breeding have the highest livelihood level, followed by planting NABEs and breeding NABEs. About 3.13% of all agricultural entities are at risk of falling into poverty; the greater risk levels are associated with the subsidized households (30.00%), pure farmers (12.50%), and part-time farming households (1.69%). NABEs in the study area are verified to use 2.06 times more pesticide and herbicide inputs compared to traditional small households. Education level, technical training, financial accessibility, and the connection with professional cooperatives are common factors influencing the livelihood levels of the two groups of agricultural entities. Livelihood levels of NABEs are also significantly influenced by the age of NABE leaders, planting area per capita, and agricultural insurance. Based on these results, the study proposes policy interventions that are most appropriate for achieving higher livelihood levels among both NABEs and small households. Although the mixed type of NABEs and non-farming households are recognized as being better agricultural entity types for poverty alleviation, we recommend a balance between fostering NABEs and maintaining traditional small households; guidance related to green agriculture production for NABEs is also urgently needed.