We document that home ownership of households with 'heads' aged 25-44 years fell substantially between 1980 and 2000 and recovered only partially during the 2001-2005 housing boom. The 1980-2000 decline in young home ownership occurred as improvements in mortgage opportunities seemingly made it...

In this paper we use the two waves of the British Retirement Survey (1988/89 and 1994) to quantify the relationship between socio-economic status and health outcomes. We find that, even after conditioning on the initial health status, wealth rankings are important determinants of mortality and...

Progress in closing differences in many objective outcomes for blacks relative to whites has slowed, and even worsened, over the past three decades. However, over this period the racial gap in well-being has shrunk. In the early 1970s data revealed much lower levels of subjective well-being...

Die Erwerbstätigkeit befindet sich in Deutschland auf einem Höchststand. Die Ursachen hierfür sind vielfältig und nicht nur in der vor zehn Jahren verabschiedeten Agenda 2010 zu sehen. Das gestiegene Bildungsniveau, die hohe Erwerbsbeteiligung, demografische Aspekte, die schrittweise...

Ireland’s relatively late and feeble fertility transition remains poorly-understood. The leading explanations stress the role of Catholicism and a conservative social ethos. Previous studies rely on evidence that is not sufficient to support firm conclusions. This paper reports the first...

In this paper we address the long-run effects of childhood shocks on health in late adulthood. Applying a life-course approach and data from SHARE we estimate direct and indirect effects of shocks like relocation, dispossession, or hunger on health outcomes after age fifty. Having lived in a...