Carla Sá, Free University, Dept. of Spatial Economics, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Raymond J.G.M. Florax, Dept. of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University
Dept. of Spatial Economics, Free University , Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Piet Rietveld, Free University, Amsterdam.
Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam., Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Leaving parental home and university decisions of Dutch young adults (assigned to theme
Transition into adulthood involves several modifications in youngsters' life, as several crucial decisions are likely to come about. Leaving the parental home is one of the most important signs that such transition is taking place, and it usually coincides with other life-cycle events and decisions such as family formation, labor market entry and further education participation. The end of secondary education is more and more the first important decision moment. At this stage, individuals have to decide, whether they go on to higher education. Even those who already decided to continue studying have to make several choices. Namely, they have to choose which institution and field of study to attend. Frequently, students leave parental home to attend university or college. According to SCP (2000) Dutch youngsters are leaving parental home ever later: girls on average at 21, and boys at 23. This is particular relevant because school choices of those living at parents' home are likely to be more geographically constrained than the other’s choices. This is to say that the spatial distribution of universities is more likely to affect those living at parents’ home. Furthermore, under some economic conditions, co-residence and human capital investments become independent. This is for instance the case when parents loan or grant housing services to their adult children, allowing them to obtain a university education. Although the economics of household behavior has emphasized the interrelation between human capital investments, labor supply and family status decisions of household members, in most studies, human capital decisions and family arrangements are kept separate or, at most, family status is taken as exogenous. Just a few recent studies jointly model these decisions. We build up a simple model of university choice and co-residence decision, by closely following Giannelli and Monfardini (2003). The theoretical model suggests several testable predictions, such as young adults are more likely to choose a given university, (i) the more students in their high school choose it; (ii) the closest home; (iii) the lower the price of housing in the university region; (iv) the more attractive the university location. Furthermore, gender and age are likely to play an important role in leaving parental home decision. These hypotheses are tested within a nested logit framework.
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