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Title: Leaving Your Mama: Why So Late in Italy?

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2008

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Abstract: Data show that, in Italy, young adults tend to postpone their transition to adulthood andlive with their parents until very late: for instance, by the age of 30, less than half of youngmales has moved out from the family of origin. Here, I study the home leaving choice inItaly with a dynamic discrete choice model in which agents simultaneously choose labor supply,residential arrangements and marital status conditional on the institutional framework and onother agents choices. The goal is to address the relative importance of several factors that areclaimed to play a role by the current literature on home leaving: economic conditions, parentalresources, and social norms. The model is structurally estimated with the Simulated Methodof Moments (SMM) using data from the Bank of Italy. Results suggest that Italians choose toremain with their parents due to low offered wage levels and limited labor demand for youngadults. Parental transfers also play a role because children rely on their parents in case ofunemployment. Finally, estimates indicate that individuals, especially women, tend to conformto each other. Nevertheless, economic factors seem to prevail in influencing the home exit choice.

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Authors: Di Stefano, Enrica

Publisher: Centro Inter-universitario di Econometria

Data Collections: IPUMS CPS

Topics: Family and Marriage, Housing and Segregation

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