Leaving home in insecure conditions: the role of labour market policies and the housing market in Europe

Abstract

Leaving home is regarded as one of the key markers of the transition to adulthood. Previous studies have shown that the degree to which labour market vulnerability affects decisions about leaving the parental home and forming a family differs across countries and across different welfare state regimes. In countries that provide more generous supports for youth, the impact of labour market weakness on housing autonomy is reduced. Still, it remains unclear what dimensions of the institutional setting may be most important when it comes to buffering the relationship between labour market insecurity and individual autonomy among young people. Against this background, the paper uses multilevel models to investigate whether and how passive labour market policies and the structure of the housing market can moderate the relationship between labour market exclusion and youth housing autonomy. The results show that the level of expenditure on passive labour market policies, as well as the level of coverage of these policies, do not play a moderating role on the association between unemployment and housing autonomy, suggesting that further investigation in this domain would benefit from the inclusion of qualitative information on the design of passive measures. On the contrary, the structure of the housing market shows a positive role, although relatively low, in moderating the association between unemployment and housing autonomy, together with a negative moderating role of the level of indebtedness of the households. These findings shed light on the domains where policy intervention might provide better returns when it comes to fostering the achievement of housing autonomy for youth.