Home Ownership, Social Insurance and the Welfare State
Dalton Conley
Abstract
Home ownership has potentially significant consequences for welfare state policy. High owneroccupancy
rates may function as private insurance where social spending is low (a substitution
effect). Alternatively, state income redistribution policies could raise the number of home owners
(an income effect). Cross-national time-series data show that social spending is negatively
related to home ownership, and mediates the positive relationship between income inequality and
owner-occupancy rates. This suggests that owner-occupancy acts as a form of social insurance
over the life course. Future welfare state researchers should consider the issue of home
ownership in analyses of inequality and the social safety net.
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