Incentives and social capital
Subtitle: are homeowners better citizens?
By: Denise DiPasquale, Edward L. Glaeser.
Contributors: Glaeser, Edward L. 1967-; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 6363; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research) -- working paper no. 6363.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 32
Subjects: Home ownership -- Social aspects -- United States.; Citizenship -- United States.; Community development -- United States.; Infrastructure (Economics) -- United States.
Other titles: Are homeowners better citizens?
Description: Individuals invest in their local environments by volunteering, getting involved in local government, becoming informed about their political leaders, joining non-professional organizations and even gardening. Homeownership may encourage these investments because homeownership gives individuals an incentive to improve their community and because homeownership creates barriers to mobility. Using the U.S. General Social Survey document that homeowners are more likely to invest in social capital, and a simple instrumental variables strategy suggests that the relationship may be causal. While our results are not conclusive, we find evidence that a large portion of the effect of homeownership on these investments may come from lower mobility rates for homeowners. Using the German Socio-Economic Panel homeownership and citizenship controlling for individual fixed effects. Finally, across cities and counties, areas with more homeowners have lower government spending, but spend a larger share of their government budget on education and highways.
Notes: "January 1998."

Includes bibliographical references (p. 32).

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