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HOME OWNERSHIP AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Contents

Tables and Figures.......................................................................................................................................ixContributors.............................................................................................................................................xvCHAPTER ONE Introduction: Social Stratification, Welfare Regimes, and Access to Home Ownership Karin Kurz and Hans-Peter Blossfeld.....................1CHAPTER TWO Home Ownership and Social Inequality in West Germany Karin Kurz............................................................................21CHAPTER THREE Home Ownership and Social Inequality in France Monique Meron and Daniel Courgeau.........................................................61CHAPTER FOUR Home Ownership and Social Inequality in Belgium Veerle Geurts and Luc Goossens............................................................79CHAPTER FIVE Home Ownership and Social Inequality in the Netherlands Clara H. Mulder...................................................................114CHAPTER SIX Home Ownership and Social Inequality in Denmark Sren Leth-Srensen........................................................................141CHAPTER SEVEN Home Ownership and Social Inequality in Norway Lars Gulbrandsen..........................................................................166CHAPTER EIGHT Home Ownership and Social Inequality in Italy Fabrizio Bernardi and Teresio Poggio.......................................................187CHAPTER NINE Home Ownership and Social Inequality in Spain Anna Cabr Pla and Juan Antonio Mdenes Cabrerizo...........................................233CHAPTER TEN Home Ownership and Social Inequality in Britain John Ermisch and Brendan Halpin............................................................255CHAPTER ELEVEN Home Ownership and Social Inequality in Ireland Tony Fahey and Bertrand Matre..........................................................281CHAPTER TWELVE Home Ownership and Social Inequality in the United States George S. Masnick.............................................................304CHAPTER THIRTEEN Home Ownership and Social Inequality in Israel Noah Lewin-Epstein, Irit Adler, and Moshe Semyonov.....................................338CHAPTER FOURTEEN Summary and Conclusions Karin Kurz and Hans-Peter Blossfeld...........................................................................365Index....................................................................................................................................................379

Chapter One

Karin Kurz and Hans-Peter Blossfeld

Traditional social stratification research concentrates on labor market inequalities in income, class, and socioeconomic status, and on how those inequalities are brought about through the influence of the family of origin or education (Blau and Duncan 1967; Erikson and Goldthorpe 1992). Although home ownership is the most important form of family wealth-it greatly affects both the living conditions and financial security of households-it has rarely been a topic of social stratification research. That omission is astonishing because access to home ownership might well deepen labor market inequalities (Forrest and Murie 1995a); alternatively, it might serve to level out those inequalities to some extent. The main proponent of the latter position is Saunders (1990), who describes Britain as a property-owning democracy in which a broad mass of households own homes and class position has lost much of its significance. Saunders's view is close to the popular theory that individualization in present-day society is increasing, the belief that traditional social collectives-based on class or ascribed characteristics, for example-have lost their significance in shaping the lives of individuals (Beck 1986, 1994).

The study of housing and tenure type (ownership versus tenancy) has been left mostly to the specialized field of housing research, which does not have strong links to general social inequality research. Housing studies tend to concentrate on housing conditions and policies, and only rarely address stratification issues (cf. Kemeny 1992). An exception are British studies that investigate whether home ownership is a determinant of life chances independent of labor market position and whether home ownership alters class consciousness and voting behavior (Forrest, Murie, and Williams 1990; Saunders 1990). Discussion in this field, however, is mainly confined to the United Kingdom: it has not stimulated systematic international comparisons. In contrast, cross-national studies of housing policies in European countries and other industrialized nations have been conducted (see, for example, Boelhouwer and van der Heijden 1992; Doling 1997; and McCrone and Stephens 1995). Moreover, quite recently attempts have been made to link housing policy studies with research on welfare states (Barlow and Duncan 1994; Castles and Ferrera 1996; Doling; Kemeny).

At the same time, economists, geographers, and demographers have undertaken empirical analyses of the determinants of tenure type. Using a cost-benefit framework, economists have mainly focused on the income elasticity of housing demand and consumption, as well as on the probability of owning versus renting. Demographers and geographers have put more emphasis on linking tenure choice to regional and temporal contexts and to events in the family life cycle (cf. Clark, Deurloo, and Dieleman 1994, 1997; Mulder and Hooimeijer 1995). In these fields, recent quantitative studies increasingly use a life course framework and methods of transition data analysis (see, for example, Courgeau and Lelivre 1992; and Mulder and Wagner 1998). But here, too, cross-national studies are rare; and in almost none of these contributions has the question of differential access to home ownership been studied in a stratification framework (cf. Mulder and Smits 1999). From these diverse research traditions, we take up, on the one hand, the social stratification perspective and, on the other, the interest in understanding country differences by referring to different cultural and institutional contexts. Moreover, we apply a life course perspective.

HOUSING TENURE AND SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

In traditional stratification research, the labor market is considered the central institution: it determines life chances. The main focus of that research, then, is on the position of the individual in the labor market and within work organizations, which is interpreted in terms of class position, social standing, or the living standard of an individual or household.

Social mobility studies coming from this research tradition typically ask two related sets of questions (see, for example, Erikson and Goldthorpe 1992): First, to what extent does class structure change between generations? If there is mobility between generations, is it simply a function of change in the occupational structure, or is it caused by a greater openness in society? Second, do children who come from different social backgrounds have equal opportunities? In industrial and postindustrial societies, is there a trend away from ascription toward achievement? That is, what role does educational achievement-versus...