Job and residential search behaviour of two-earner households

Even though a large share of the workforce belongs to two-earner households, job search models invariably ignore the interaction between the wage earners of the same household. In this article, job and residential search behaviour of two-earner households are simultaneously analysed. The main finding of the theoretical model is that two-earner households search less intensively in the housing market, and more intensively in the labour market, if the distance between the workplaces of the two wage earners is longer. In the empirical part the latter finding has been analysed based upon a data set for Dutch two-earner households. Received: 12 May 1998 / Accepted: 10 October 1999     

Displacement and urban restructuring in Amsterdam; following relocatees after demolition of social housing

Over the past decade, urban restructuring of segregated neighbourhoods has transformed many urban districts, in the Netherlands and elsewhere; middle class households have entered neighbourhoods which were previously inhabited by lower class. Some argue that this influx of middle class has happened at the expense of the displaced original population. We investigated this process of (forced) relocation from restructured neighbourhoods. In contrast with earlier studies, individual level data have been provided directly by one of the Amsterdam housing associations involved in this process. This offered the opportunity to analyse population data, not a sample, of all relocatees from four particular urban restructuring projects in Amsterdam. We investigated location preferences before relocation as well as actual residential location behaviour per household and relocatee type and compared characteristics of their old and new dwellings and neighbourhoods. One of the findings is that forced relocation often parallels preferences expressed by the displaced.     

A simulation model of residential mobility and housing choice

Residential mobility is the outcome of housing market search. Mobility rates depend on the search intensity of the household, the arrival rate of opportunities in the market, and the rates of acceptance of these opportunities by the households. Micro-analytical models of overt mobility fail in decomposing the compound rate into its constituent parts and can therefore not distinguish between demand- or supply-driven changes in the housing market. Micro-analytical models of stated preferences are only partial and do not reflect the actual behaviour of households in a specific housing market context. Simulation models of residential mobility and housing market search offer a potential advantage over micro-analytical models, due to their flexible nature. By simulating demand, supply, and the actual match of households to vacancies, a full representation of the housing market can be given. TheLocSim model presented here is a micro simulation model of a local housing market and is illustrative of the potential for modelling residential mobility. This includes:

-the variation in search intensities of households, dependent on the motive for moving, including dependence on events in other than the housing career;

-the generation of supply, as an unintended outcome of the residential mobility of households that move to another dwelling;

-the adjustment of initial preferences, as households become aware of the opportunities and constraints in the local housing market during their search;

-the public choice, with respect to the creation of opportunities by stimulating the construction of dwellings and with respect to imposing constraints on the accessibility of social rented housing.

The application of this model to the specific group of young people in the process of household formation illustrates the sensitivity of the rates of residential mobility and out-migration to shortages and other constraints in the local housing market.     

THE RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION OF AMERICAN INDIANS IN METROPOLITAN AREAS OF MICHIGAN

American Indian or Native American residential segregation is viewed within the general framework of ecological theory. According to theorists of human ecology, variation in segregation between groups relates directly to measurable differences on social and economic variables. This study uses 1980 census tract data and the index of dissimilarity to measure the extent of residential segregation in Michigan's 12 Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Correlation coefficients were computed to assess whether a strong relationship exists between the residential segregation of American Indians and the spatial distribution of housing value and rent. The findings revealed that Indian-white residential segregation is lower than black-white segregation and that American Indians are more segregated from blacks than from whites. The segregated distribution pattern of American Indians is not strongly related to the cost of housing.     

RACIAL SUCCESSION AND RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY IN DALLAS-FORT WORTH AND SAN ANTONIO

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the differences in residential succession patterns for black, Hispanic, and Anglo-American households in the Dallas-Forth Worth and San Antonio metropolitan areas. Demographic variables such as household income, household size, and age of household head are compared to improve understanding of housing mobility among groups. In addition, relevant variables are analyzed through application of multivariate logistic regressions. It was found that of the demographic variables that play roles in determining interracial residential succession, race was of overwhelming importance. This implies that there is a lack of interaction between housing markets for the different groups in both Dallas-Forth Worth and San Antonio. In San Antonio, however, the Anglo housing market appears to interact more with the other two groups.     

住宅采暖能耗与住户调节行为关系的分析研究

本文以北京市2栋满足"第三步"建筑节能设计标准并安装分户热计量装置的新建住宅楼为研究对象,对楼内的115个住户进行冬季采暖耗热量等相关数据的逐周采集,并对其中8个住户的房间进行室温连续测试。调查和测试结果表明:住户房间室内的热舒适度明显提高,但按照室内、外设计参数折算后的采暖耗热量仍超过"第三步"建筑节能设计标准所要求的限值。导致该现象的主要原因在于住户调节行为方式所决定的房间通风状况、室温设定偏高及邻室传热等因素的影响。     

Recent Evidence on the Continuing Causes of Black‐White Residential Segregation

Abstract: Black‐white residential segregation, while on the decline, still persists at high levels in most US metropolitan areas. Despite decades of research into the underlying causes of black‐white residential segregation, there is still much disagreement among scholars over the root causes of this phenomenon. This article examines recent evidence on the causes of black‐white residential segregation. Evidence on the following hypotheses is examined: racial income differences, racial differences in tastes for housing services, racial differences in housing market information, racial prejudice, and housing market discrimination. Recent evidence suggests that household‐level socioeconomic and demographic characteristics explain only a small proportion of the racial differences in location choices. Racial processes such as prejudice and housing market discrimination continue to drive black‐white segregation patterns.     

Develop first,make amends later: accessibility within residential neighbourhoods in Ghana

Accessibility is frequently reported in transportation and urban planning studies as an important factor in the location or design of residential neighbourhoods. But, to what extent does accessibility influence residential location decisions of households remains unknown in urban Ghana. This paper uses household surveys and agency consultations to examine the relative importance of accessibility (i.e. street connectivity, motorability and mobility) in households’ residential location choices in the Adenta Municipality, Ghana. The experiences described by urban households indicate a strong association with accessibility in their location decisions. This implies that areas with poor street connectivity, motorability and mobility will possibly tend to be less attractive to would-be residents. The study further revealed that household respondents do not merely locate in areas just for the sake of it, rather, they are informed by a variety of accessibility attributes among them include cost of travel, proximity to road, street type, distance to work, travel time, proximity to work and traffic-related nuisance. As a result, although many household respondents (59.74%) developed their residential units in areas with limited or no accessibility, they expressed strong appreciation of the importance of, and the need for accessibility in residential neighbourhoods to ensure effective functionality of the municipality, in relation to connecting activity zones such as work places, shopping and recreational areas. Planning implications are further presented.     

ETHNIC RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION BY NATIVITY IN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES

ABSTRACT: This study examines patterns of ethnic residential integration in Great Britain and the United States. Using data from 2000/2001 censuses from these two countries, we compute segregation indexes for comparably defined ethnic groups by nativity and for specific foreign‐born groups. We find that blacks are much less segregated in Great Britain than in the United States, and black segregation patterns by nativity tend to be consistent with spatial assimilation in the former country (the foreign‐born are more segregated than the native‐born) but not in the latter. Among Asian groups, however, segregation tends to be lower in the United States, and segregation patterns by nativity are more consistent with spatial assimilation in the United States but not in Great Britain. These findings suggest that intergenerational minority disadvantage persists among blacks in the United States and among Asians in Great Britain. We caution, however, that there are important differences in levels of segregation among specific foreign‐born Asian groups, suggesting that assimilation trajectories likely differ by country of origin. Finally, the fact that segregation levels are considerably higher in the United States for a majority of groups, including white foreign‐born groups, suggests that factors not solely related to race or physical appearance drive higher levels of ethnic residential segregation in the United States.     

Ethnic Residential Clusters in Nima,Ghana

The global debate on ethnic residential segregation has focused more on the developed world, and little is known about similar patterns and processes in African cities. This is in spite of the fact that many African cities are now ranked among the world’s most rapidly growing and least regulated urban areas. Indeed, the dynamics of ethnic residential segregation have scarcely been studied in African cities. The little literature available has looked at ethnic segregation between the neighbourhoods of major cities. This paper goes beyond current literature by examining the pattern and processes of ethnic clustering within a multi-ethnic community. Our goal in this paper is to answer the question as to whether within a multi-ethnic urban neighbourhood the major ethnic groups are residentially clustered, isolated or dispersed. The focus is on Nima, a major slum community of Accra, Ghana. The findings of the study show that even though Nima is a multi-ethnic community, some level of ethnic clustering can be discerned. These patterns are linked to the history of settlement formation, religious affiliation and ethnic or place of origin of earlier house owners.     

Accessibility at the household level using the Structural Accessibility Layer: A forecast of potential future travel behaviour based on self-selection of residential location

The current paper analysis the differences in accessibility categories at the household level and by lifecycle changes by using the Structural Accessibility Layer. Results are evaluated from spatial, numerical and qualitative perspectives. Main findings show differences in residential preference by a single-person household, couple without children and households with children for different potential accessibility categories. This paper provides evidence that external factors influence the population to move from public transport into car-based mobility. Finally, we observe areas categorized as suitable for both walking and public transport mobility presenting low population density and residential development of those areas is suggested.     

The evolution of spatial patterns of residential segregation in Central European Cities: The Łódź Functional Urban Region from mature socialism to mature post-socialism

Two themes dominated the study of socio-spatial change in Central Eastern Europe (CEE) after 1990. One was that the development of urban regions in CEE after the demise of socialism is characterized by suburbanization. The second topic raises the issue of growing residential segregation. Unfortunately, studies on patterns of residential segregation are still scarce in the CEE context, in particular those that employ traditional measures of segregation. Relying on solid empirical materials from the 1988 and 2002 National Censuses, the purpose of this paper is to map and analyze the patterns of residential segregation in the ?ód? Functional Urban Region, an old industrial urban region in Poland undergoing a rapid deconcentration and shrinkage of the core area. This contribution concludes that the first decade of systemic transition resulted in decreasing residential segregation, as gauged by global measures of segregation.     

The Hungry Cities Food Purchases Matrix: Household Food Sourcing and Food System Interaction

Urban food insecurity is partly the result of interactions between households and the broader food system. There is considerable discussion and debate on the most appropriate measures of household food insecurity but very little on how to quantify interactions between households and the system. One priority is to develop food security metrics that incorporate household interactions with the food retail environment. The Hungry Cities Food Purchases Matrix (HCFPM) is one such metric developed for relating household food sourcing behaviour to that environment. The matrix has been successfully used by the Hungry Cities Partnership to shed light on food sourcing and food system interactions in a number of cities in the Global South. Using Maputo as a case study, this paper discusses the objectives, structure and potential of the HCFPM for African cities and illustrates how in can provide important insights into household-food system interactions. The HCFPM therefore opens up a new way of understanding household purchasing behaviour and associated food insecurity.     

Energy-saving potential by improving occupants’ behavior in urban residential sector in Hangzhou City, China

Besides technical measures, occupants’ behavior is one of the most important issues with respect to energy efficiency in households. This paper will discuss the relationship between electricity consumption and household lifestyle and evaluate the energy-saving potential by improving occupants’ behavior in domestic life through energy-saving education. After 124 households in three typical residential buildings in Hangzhou city of China being selected as research subjects, a series of surveys were conducted: (1) recording of the monthly electricity uses of all subject households from March 2007 to July 2008; (2) energy-saving education to the half of the households before July 2008; (3) a comprehensive survey about the household lifestyle of all subject households in the beginning of August 2008. By comparison analysis of the survey data, major findings are as follows: (1) residential electricity consumption will increase continually in the next years in China, because of the improvement of people's living standard and more dependency on electric appliances; (2) improving occupants’ behavior in domestic life can save more than 10% household electricity use; and (3) some effort on residential energy savings should be shifted from technological measures to improving occupants’ behavior in ordinary domestic life.     

Black Residential Segregation in the City and Suburbs of Detroit: Does Socioeconomic Status Matter?

According to ecological theory, the socioeconomic status of a minority group is inversely related to the group's level of residential segregation from the majority group. This article determines whether the level of black socioeconomic status is related to the level of black residential segregation in the city of Detroit and Detroit's suburbs. Data were obtained from the U.S. Bureau of Census, 1990 Summary Tape Files 4‐A. The methods employed to measure residential segregation were the indexes of dissimilarity D and isolation P*. Indexes were computed by census tract to measure segregation and isolation between blacks and whites at the same level of occupation, income, or education. The results revealed that residential segregation between blacks and whites remained high (i.e., above 50%) in both the city and the suburbs despite comparable socioeconomic status. Blacks in the suburbs were more segregated and isolated than blacks in the city at each socioeconomic level.     

Trade-off relationship between public transportation accessibility and household economy: Analysis of subway access values by housing size

This study examines whether different income groups have different trade-off preferences between public transportation accessibility and income and economic power. In this study, apartments, the most typical housing type in Seoul, were categorized according to size (small, medium, and large) based on the premise that apartment size is a measure of the economic status of an individual or household. Subsequently, the effect of subway accessibility on apartment prices for the three types of apartments was examined through the conventional hedonic price model and the spatial autoregressive combined model, followed by an investigation of the spatial patterns of the effect with a focus on a geographically weighted regression. As a result, this study finds that, although subway accessibility serves as a positive factor in housing location decisions for most socioeconomic classes, the positive effect is not spatially unanimous, indicating that households with relatively robust economic stability preferred housing locations further away from subway stations in pursuit of a more attractive residential environment. Although high-income households trade greater accessibility to public transportation for a more attractive neighborhood environment, middle-income households more actively pursued convenience and the greenness of their neighborhoods. Households with less economic stability preferred neighborhoods featuring relatively low-cost housing and greater accessibility. These results confirm the prevalence of trade-off between public transportation accessibility and housing size in Seoul, Korea. This also verifies that the spatial division along economic class lines is intensifying, and that perspectives on subway accessibility vary depending on consumers' economic status. The results suggest the need for consumer-tailored public transportation policies that consider the residential location patterns of the socioeconomic classes that are dependent on public transportation. This perspective can improve our understanding of how to distribute mass transportation systems spaces in large cities, particularly where the wealth gap is relatively high.     

The downside of home ownership: Housing change and mortgage arrears in the republic of Ireland

Recent debates concerning the existence of social divisions within home ownership hold implications for analyses of housing policy. This is especially true in situations where housing policy has been driven by an overt support for home ownership. In particular, the consequences of expanding home ownership among low‐income groups needs to be examined. This paper argues that an appropriate framework for such an investigation requires a three tiered approach encompassing housing policy, institutional behaviour and the housing experiences of households. Adopting a ‘structures of housing provision’ approach (Ball, 1983; Ball & Harloe, 1992), this paper examines the consequences of extending home ownership in the Republic of Ireland over the period 1970–90. Moving from an overview of housing policy and institutional activity in housing finance, the paper addresses the issue of mortgage arrears through an analysis of building society management practice and household experiences.     

INVOLUNTARY ISOLATION: ETHNIC PREFERENCES AND RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION

ABSTRACT: In recent years, there has been a substantial amount of empirical work done on the causes of residential segregation. Nevertheless, better understanding of to what extent ethnic groups choose to live in the proximity of each other, or to what extent segregation is forced upon them is imperative. Prior research on self‐segregation either focused on discovering underlying motivations for self‐segregation, or the effect of stated preferences on observed patterns of segregation, whereas few studies directly link motivations, preferences, and segregation to one another in more detail. This article seeks to clarify mechanisms driving self‐segregation, subsequently relating self‐segregation to actual residential segregation. The results suggest that preferences for coethnic neighbors, driven mostly by interethnic prejudice, contribute to observed residential isolation to a certain extent. In some cases, perceived and experienced hostility and discrimination toward ethnic minorities stimulate self‐segregation as well, while interethnic contact decreases it.     

Estimating energy savings from behaviours using building performance simulations

Occupants’ behaviours are a major determinant of energy use in buildings. The related savings potential has been insufficiently exploited. Although research has addressed behavioural savings through real-world interventions and quantitative modelling approaches, it has not yet explored the full variety of household activities. This work proposes an integrative modelling approach of energy behaviours in the residential setting as a tool to estimate the behavioural impact of households on energy consumption. It uses building energy performance simulation (BEPS) tools to exploit the behavioural savings potential associated with usage and investment energy behaviours when using different energy services in daily household activities. Simulations have estimated significant behavioural savings potential associated with energy behaviours, which may be materialized if some forms of behaviour are induced. Investment behaviours have higher savings potential than usage behaviours, and the behavioural savings potential per energy service is proportional to the energy consumption breakdown. BEPS tools enable a quantitative estimate of the behavioural impact on energy consumption, but further improvements to these tools are needed to incorporate the complexity of behavioural dimensions. Estimating the behavioural savings potential is important for a more effective design of behaviour change interventions, which in turn will support more effective energy efficiency policies.     

Exploring Dual Housing Tenure Status as a Household Response to Demographic,Social and Economic Change

This article proposes that single housing tenure categories do not enable an understanding of the ways in which households use, occupy and own residential properties in the context of broad demographic, economic and social changes. Adapting work on sub-tenure housing choice, housing tenure is overlaid with ownership of residential property to develop four tenure types: Owner, Owner-Owner, Renter and Renter-Owner. Applying this typology in the Australian case provides valuable new insights, with 1.5 million households having dual housing tenure status, including almost one in eight private renters. More broadly, reconceptualising housing tenure to include ownership of other residential property can contribute to theoretical debates about household income and wealth; social status and identity; and social practices and life planning, potentially generating new research questions such as the extent to which Renter-Owners reflect new patterns of living or a response to affordability constraints, and the social identity and political affiliations of those with a dual tenure status.