Explaining variation in intergenerational downward mobility in homeownership across Europe

Termin

24.03.2026, 10:00 – 11:30 Uhr, in Präsenz, Online-Teilnahme möglich

Referentin

Dr. Bettina Hünteler, DIW Berlin

Zusammenfassung

Against the background of universally declining homeownership rates among younger adults in Europe, recent research suggests that the share of individuals who do not own their home despite their parents’ homeownership has increased substantially. Thus, parental homeownership no longer guarantees children’s homeownership. Yet, as the level and increase of downward mobility vary across European countries, it remains unclear under which circumstances individuals experience downward mobility and who is particularly prone to it.

Intergenerational downward mobility in homeownership reflects a crowding-out process driven by the devaluation of parental homeownership as an entry card for owning as well as widespread declines in homeownership affordability for younger generations. We integrate theories from the occupational mobility literature with research on the intergenerational persistence of homeownership, emphasizing the parental resource approach and a meritocratic perspective against the background of the life-course framework. We aim to examine (1) which individual and family-of-origin characteristics are associated with the likelihood intergenerational downward mobility, (2) which contextual characteristics explain the cross-national variation in its prevalence, and (3) how individual characteristics matter differently in different contexts. We use the European Union Statistics of Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) from 2011 and 2019 and integrate demographic, economic, and housing-related contextual indicators from the novel DECIPHE contextual data base for 83,317 individuals born in 1965-76 and aged 40 to 50 years from 25 European countries to test these expectations. After describing country differences in downward mobility, we apply Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition to examine how cross-national differences in socio-economic composition explain this variation. Lastly, we employ multilevel mixed-effects models with cross-level interactions to explore the explanatory power of individual- and family-related characteristics across contexts. This study contributes to the literature on social inequality and mobility by investigating the drivers and contextual dependencies of the declining intergenerational transmission of advantage, focusing on homeownership as a key dimension of wealth inequality.

Vortragssprache

Deutsch