The dynamics of gender in the intergenerational transmission of homeownership: A case study of young couples in Shanghai
Open accessAbstract
Parental support has become increasingly important to the housing opportunities of young Chinese households. The gender dynamics of support practices, however, have not been well understood. Drawing on a survey of Shanghai households, this study investigates the role of parents in shaping the housing outcomes of young couples, focusing on gender differences in intergenerational transmissions. Employing generalised structural equation modelling, our analysis illustrates that support from both husband's and wife's parents can affect the household's housing outcomes, directly and indirectly, but with some critical differences. The socioeconomic characteristics of husband's parents, such as educational level and employer type, are more relevant to housing outcomes than those of the wife's parents. While for women, having homeowning parents with local hukou indicates a higher probability of the couple becoming homeowners, for men, the association is inverse. In exploring these differences, we unravel how parental support intertwines with broader social norms and practices concerning family and gender norms.
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The burden of purchasing a home falls on the man's family of origin, leading to gendered intergenerational transfer of wealth, which is different from western countries.
“The burden of purchasing a home actually falls on the shoulders of the man's family of origin, leading to the gendered intergenerational transfer of wealth (Cui, Cui, Ronald, Yu, & Mu, 2021; Deng et al., 2019), which is different from western countries.”
From His house, her house? Gender inequality and homeownership among married couples in urban China (2023) · cites this paper as Cui, Cui, Ronald, Yu, & Mu, 2021
Section 2.3 (p. 4) says young Chinese couples have relied more heavily on the husband's family for marital homes, and the discussion (p. 12) links differing family obligations to gender gaps. But the paper also says both sets of parents contribute, increasingly including the wife's parents (p. 3); its discussion of Western societies (p. 12) does not establish the claimed contrast in which family bears the home-purchase burden. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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Why women own less housing assets in China? The role of intergenerational transfers
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“In this way, family reciprocity can compensate for gaps in the social security sys-tem Cui, Cui, Mu, & Hao, 2020; Deng, Hoekstra, & Elsinga, 2019).”
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- How to cite this article: Cui J, Cui C, Ronald R, Yu S, Mu X. The dynamics of gender in the intergenerational transmission of homeownership: A case study of young couples in Shanghai. Popul Space Place . 2021;27:e2428. https://doi.org/ 10.1002/psp.2428
Cited by
Sorted by citations
His house, her house? Gender inequality and homeownership among married couples in urban China
Cui, C., Yu, S., & Huang, Y. (2023) · Cities · doi:10.1016/j.cities.2022.104187 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
Self-citationUniversity education, homeownership and housing wealth
Wang, H., Cheng, Z., Smyth, R., Sun, G., Li, J., & Wang, W. (2022) · China Economic Review · doi:10.1016/j.chieco.2021.101742 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
- Authors
- Cui, J., Cui, C., Ronald, R., Yu, S., & Mu, X.
- Affiliations
- East China Normal University (CN)
- Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HK)
- Corresponding author
- Cui, Can
- Venue
- Population, Space and Place
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2021-02-02
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 6
- ISSN
- 1544-8444 (ISSN-L)
- 1544-8452
- OpenAlex
- W3126480202
- Cited by
- 14
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 1.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Population Space and Place (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (482.19.607)
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (41701176)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Housing Market and Economics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Keywords
- intergenerational transmission, homeownership, gender differences, parental support, young couples, household registration, housing outcomes, gender norms, family norms, Shanghai, Chinese households
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