Job match, Housing need and Inequalities

By formalizing the concept of “good job match” (a mutually beneficial job condition for both firms and workers), this paper studies the relation between labour market outcomes and ”housing need” satisfaction (buying/owning a home to live in). In particular, the focus is on individuals and families that do not have the monetary capacity to buy a house and only rely on finding a good job match to satisfy the housing need. Two are the main results of this analysis. First, the theoretical model shows that a ”good job match” enables workers to get a mortgage (to buy a home) when the surplus in the homeownership market (the benefit of becoming a homeowner) is considered in the wage bargaining. Second, the panel analysis shows a positive relation between the Gini index and the homeownership mortgage-free. Outright homeownership also includes wealthy people and, thus, homeownership mortgage-free could be an indicator of inequality in society.