Exploring intergenerational inequalities in housing and health

Abstract

Internationally, we have experienced an exceptional period of economic volatility bridging a post-crisis economic dislocation and partial recovery – the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). The life chances and opportunities of a typical 25 year old in this period, and the role and relevance of housing in shaping these opportunities, reflects not just householders’ youth, but also, and crucially, the wider mix of factors operating when they were young. Being 25 in the year 2000 positioned someone very differently in the political economy of housing than being 25 in 2010. The way housing operates to amplify or ameliorate inequality, and to magnify its effects (on health, wellbeing, and on other life chances) may vary from cohort to cohort quite independently of age or other life-course factors. These cohort effects are largely unexplored. In this paper, we use longitudinal data from Australia and the United Kingdom to describe these cohort effects. Specifically, for each of the four major generational cohorts since WWII (commonly known as Boomer, X, Y and Millennial), we will quantify the effects of housing cost, tenure, condition and location on mental health and wellbeing to explore the contribution of intergenerational factors related to housing to the generation of health inequalities.