In Need of a Roof: Pandemic and Housing Vulnerability. A new GLO Discussion Paper by GLO Fellows Kusum Mundra & Ruth Uwaifo Oyelere.

A new GLO Discussion Paper finds that individuals in the USA overvalue their housing vulnerability during the recent Covid pandemic.

GLO Discussion Paper No. 1216, 2023

In Need of a Roof: Pandemic and Housing Vulnerability – Download PDF
by Mundra, Kusum & Uwaifo Oyelere, Ruth

GLO Fellows Kusum Mundra & Ruth Uwaifo Oyelere

Author Abstract: Housing is a basic need and is intricately connected to a household’s health and wellness. The current pandemic has exposed the housing vulnerability for certain subgroups of the population and further jeopardized these household’s health and stability. Using the Household Pulse Survey launched by the US Census Bureau since April 2020, we examine the correlates of housing vulnerability during the pandemic. We explore both subjective and objective measures of vulnerability. In addition, we explore heterogeneity in the evolution of housing vulnerability along demographic characteristics such as ethnicity and housing type (renter vs owner) during the pandemic. Our results suggest that individuals perception on their housing vulnerability in the immediate future is on average higher than the objective evaluation of their current vulnerability. In addition, not being employed, lower levels of education and household size all increase home vulnerability. We also find significant heterogeneity across race in the evolution of vulnerability during the pandemic (2000-2022) with a “chilling effect” on Asians.

Featured image: Adli-Wahid-on-Unsplash

PUBLISHED
Vol. 36, Issue 1, January 2023: Journal of Population Economics (JOPE) 16 articles. https://link.springer.com/journal/148/volumes-and-issues/36-1
Watch the videos of article presentations on December 1, 2022 during the GLO Global Conference 2022.

JOPE has CiteScore 6.5 (2021, LINK) & Impact Factor 4.7 (2021, LINK)

GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS,  EconPapers)Complete list of all GLO DPs – downloadable for free.

The Global Labor Organization (GLO) is an independent, non-partisan and non-governmental organization that functions as an international network and virtual platform to stimulate global research, debate and collaboration.

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