Job Market Paper
Living at Home: Non-Market Insurance and Labour Market Risk
Over the past several decades, housing costs have risen rapidly relative to incomes. In a similar
time period, multigenerational households with at least two adult generations have also become
increasingly common. Existing literature suggests that young adults use the choice to move home
with a parent as an insurance mechanism against labour market risk, while new evidence from
the Health and Retirement Study indicates that this insurance behaviour persists for workers into
middle-age. I estimate a quantitative model of job search and parental coresidence to evaluate the
welfare gains of this channel relative to traditional forms of unemployment insurance as well as
characterize worker search behaviour in the context of this previously under-examined insurance
mechanism.
Slides
Works in Progress
Parental Altruism and Transfers Draft