Richard, Morgane Marie;
(2024)
Household Heterogeneity and Choices of Work and Consumption.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
This thesis consists of three chapters on household heterogeneity and choices of work and consumption. Chapter 1 studies the impact of risk heterogeneity on durable consumption over the business cycle. I examine household risk heterogeneity through the lens of labour contract type, and document that during the Great Recession, fixed-term contract workers reduced their car purchases significantly more than their permanent counterparts. Using an incomplete market model of durable and non-durable consumption with a dual labour market, I show that households that experienced an increase in downside income risk (such as permanent contract holders) adopted a "wait-and-see" strategy for their durable purchases, while households that experienced a decline in upside income risk (such as fixed-term contract holders) adopted a "wait-to-downgrade" approach. In Chapter 2, I study the impact of the recent rise in remote work on households’ consumption, wealth and housing decisions, examining both short-run and long-run effects. Using a heterogeneous agent model with endogenous housing tenure and city geography, I show that remote work shifts households’ housing demand by increasing the demand for space and reducing the commuting costs. It affects where people live in the city and their housing wealth accumulation. The effects vary by access to remote work, income, and wealth. The rise in work-from-home can be compared to a suburb-wide gentrification shock as wealthy telecommuters opt for larger suburban homes, displacing marginal owners who turn to renting. In the long-run, work-from-home leads to the rise of a tele-premium. Chapter 3 provides novel empirical evidence on London house prices and rents. Using rich property-level data, I show that larger properties and properties located away from the city centre appreciated the most since the rise in remote work. I estimate a hedonic pricing schedule and document a rise in the premium for space and a decline in the commuting penalty.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Household Heterogeneity and Choices of Work and Consumption |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2024. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Economics |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10193893 |
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