Journal article
Smoothing consumption fluctuations through household decisions on home improvement expenditure in Japan
Y Moriizumi, P Tiwari, N Yukutake
International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis | Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. | Published : 2014
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the housing improvement expenditure as a consumption smoothing strategy for Japanese households. Design/methodology/approach: Tobit estimation method is used to empirically investigate the role of home improvement expenditure in smoothing consumption for households in Japan using data from Japan Housing Demand Survey for 2003. Findings: Findings suggest that: households in Japan use home improvement expenditure to adjust fluctuation in income. Income-constrained elderly households reduce their housing consumption by not improving their homes ceteris paribus in order to maintain their consumption levels. The mortgage repayment burden also p..
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Awarded by Ministry of Education Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
Funding Acknowledgements
The first author is grateful to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism for generously providing the authors with the data on Japan Housing Demand Survey. The author also acknowledges a Grant-in-Aid (No. 1953019) for Scientific Research (C) from the Ministry of Education Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The second author would like to thank Daiwa Anglo Japanese Foundation and Japan Foundation Endowment Committee for grants which facilitated undertaking this research. The authors would like to thank participants at the Skye real estate conference 2010 for their useful comments.