Revisiting the Effect of Homeownership on Social Capital October 3, 2013 Roland Cheoa , Eric Fesselmeyerb,∗, Kiat Ying Seahc a Center for Economic Research, Shandong University, China Department of Economics, National University of Singapore c Department of Real Estate, National University of Singapore b Abstract This paper examines the role of homeownership in a household’s decision to invest in social capital. Because homeowners are more likely to improve the quality of their community and less likely to move, many housing advocates believe that homeownership brings about better citizenship. The empirical literature on the relationship between social capital and homeownership is, however, plagued by two particular difficulties. First, homeownership is an endogenous variable that is correlated with unobservable characteristics that describe good citizenship thus making instruments and more sophisticated econometric specifications necessary. Second, datasets of social capital investment choices are hard to come by. Using confidential and detailed household-level data, we are able to model the interrelated decisions of social capital investment and homeownership with an endogenous switching model that controls for selection effects. With appropriate instruments, we find strong evidence that homeownership increases the rate of social capital investment. Keywords: Social Capital, Homeownership, Externalities JEL Classifications: R20, R21, D62 ∗ Corresponding author Email address: ecsef@nus.edu.sg Tel: 2646) (Eric Fesselmeyer) (65) 6516 4873 Fax: (65) 6775 1. Introduction Stabilized neighborhoods, increased political activism and positive effects on family structure and children - these are some of the social benefits that have been espoused by advocates who believe that homeownership brings about better citizenship. A popular argument in support for increased homeownership rates concerns the externalities in housing consumption. Just as a homeowner has an incentive to improve his property, and such improvements may simultaneously increase neighboring property values, a homeowner similarly has an incentive to invest in social capital that could make her community cleaner or safer with the expectation that any returns from social capital investment is recouped through higher property values.1 In contrast, renters may be less likely to invest in social capital since any monetary payoff from such community-specific investments accrues only to the landlords. A natural way to test whether homeowners invest more in social capital than do renters is to compare social capital investment rates of homeowners and renters. This approach, however, is plagued by a particular difficulty: homeownership is an endogenous variable. Homeowners may have characteristics that correlate strongly with individual characteristics that predict citizenship. That is, the qualities that make an individual invest in social capital may be the same qualities that determine homeownership. While the endogeneity difficulty could, in principle, be alleviated using instrumental variable estimation, such a remedy often requires detailed micro-level data that allow a researcher to mine carefully considered instruments – an empirical luxury that is, oftentimes, rare. Consequently, skepticism is still present with respect to the causal effect homeownership has on social capital. 1 Social capital is a multifaceted concept. In the present study, social capital refers to the the access to resources through interactions made in a social setting such as membership in groups and networks (see, e.g., Bourdieu (1986) and Sobel (2002)). 1 The objective of this paper is to reexamine the role of homeownership in a household’s decision to invest in social capital using a detailed, confidential dataset that allows us to include instruments and explanatory variables that were not considered before. The basis of our approach follows DiPasquale and Glaeser (1999), whereby homeowners and renters based their decisions to invest in social capital on the perceived benefits from these investments. Homeowners have a larger incentive to participate in activities that are perceived to improve neighborhood capital since they are able to directly reap any returns from these investments through an increase in property values whereas any pecuniary payoffs from community-specific investments made by renters only accrue to the landlords. We use data from a confidential version of the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS) to investigate the effect of homeownership on five “participation” variables that measure participation in the local community and thus represent investment in social capital: volunteerism in a local organization, participation in a neighborhood meeting or block meeting, participation in a business or civic group, participation in a local or state political organization, and membership in a house of worship (for example, a church or a temple). Our paper differs from DiPasquale and Glaeser (1999) in two ways. First, we use detailed, confidential data that surveys households within a city whereas DiPasquale and Glaeser (1999) used the General Social Survey (GSS) which contains coarser geographic information. The confidential version of the L.A.FANS dataset identifies each household’s census tract, which allows us to include potentially important neighborhood information such as ownership rates, median rents, and median house values. With this detailed dataset we are also able to construct two new instruments for homeownership, a rent-price ratio and a measure of an individual’s ability to pay a downpayment, in addition to the homeownership rate instrument used in 2 DiPasquale and Glaeser (1999). Second, DiPasquale and Glaeser (1999) use OLS and IV estimation while we use the endogenous switching model2 that is more general in that it allows for the joint determination of homeownership and investment in one’s community as both a renter and as an owner. That homeownership affects participation in community-enhancing activities and that the perceived benefits associated with these social capital investments affect the level of homeownership means that homeownership and social capital/local amenities investment are simultaneously related. This simultaneity creates a selection bias. Consequently, homeownership is not randomly assigned. The advantage of the endogenous switching model is that it allows us to estimate structural parameters which show the degree and direction of the nonrandom selection of individuals into homeownership. We find strong evidence for a positive and, in most cases, large effect of homeownership in our preferred specification that accounts for sample selection into homeownership. A homeowner is 19.7 percentage points more likely to volunteer, 14.5 percentage points more likely to participate in a block meeting, 10.5 percentage points more likely to participate in a civic group, 3.2 percentage points more likely to be part of a political organization, and 15.6 percentage points more likely to be a member of a religious group than a renter. Moreover, we find that probit severely underestimates the marginal effect of homeownership due to sample selection into homeownership. Our results augment and confirm the results in DiPasquale and Glaeser (1999) that homeownership provides a strong incentive for social capital investment. The paper is organized as follows. The next section discusses the relevant literature. Section 3 contains the model and estimation approach, Section 4 contains a description of the data, and Section 5 discusses the results. We conclude in Section 6. 2 See, in particular, Maddala (1983) and Amemiya (1985). 3 2. Literature Review The concept of social capital has its origin in sociology. Portes and Landolt (1996) attribute the genesis of the concept to the early sociological works in the nineteenth-century. The term social capital was first used by sociologist Bourdieu (1986) to refer to access to resources that accrue to people through membership in certain communities. Following Putnam (1993)’s finding of a positive correlation between civic engagement and government quality there was a surge in empirical research documenting the effects of social capital on socio-economic outcomes. These early empirical studies have seemingly found a positive relationship between social capital and economic or labor outcomes (for example, see Furstenberg and Hughes (1995) and Knack and Keefer (1997)). However, many of these earlier endeavors suffer from identification problems that arise due to endogeneity issues. Durlauf (2002), in his persuasive and insightful critique, discusses the potential identification pitfalls contained in many of these oft cited studies. One strand of research that stands apart from the empirical studies on the effects of social capital is a body of studies that seek to identify the mechanisms behind the creation of social capital.3 These studies evaluate the determinants of individuals’ social capital investment behavior since the returns to social capital are inherently heterogeneous for individuals with different endowments and characteristics. Different incentives are the antecedents to different social capital investment behavior. Modeling the effect of homeownership on social capital investment is one such example. The idea is that homeownership fundamentally changes an individual’s behavior in two important ways. For one, a homeowner has a long-term financial obligation and is more vested in the well-being of his neighborhood or community 3 See, for example, DiPasquale and Glaeser (1999), Alesina and La Ferrara (2000), and Glaeser and Sacerdote (2000). 4 than a renter. Second, owning a home involves large transaction costs and this in turn increases the cost of moving, thus reducing households’ mobility. Residential immobility potentially induces neighborhood stability, and this, in turn, could enhance homeowners entrenchment in their residences and thereby increase social capital accumulation. A number of studies have attempted to show empirical evidence of homeownership’s effect on political and social activity. Many have found that homeowners are more likely than renters to volunteer or to participate in local political groups and nonprofessional organizations.4 Rossi and Weber (1996), using the data from the National Opinion Research Center’s General Social Survey (GSS), finds that homeowners are more “consistently engaged” in local politics and are more likely to vote in national elections. Rohe and Stegman (1994) finds that homeowners are more likely to participate in neighborhood and block associations but are not that different from renters in terms of church, school and political organizations involvement. Similar to the above-mentioned identification problem in the social capital literature, the main criticism of these earlier empirical studies is that unobservables could potentially determine homeownership and good citizenship simultaneously.5 For instance, individuals who have a taste for owning a home may also have a predilection for being politically active or forming social ties within their communities. That is, homeownership is likely an endogenous variable; the incidence of whether or not an individual is a homeowner is not a result of a randomized trial but a consequence of some conscious utility-optimizing behavior which depends on factors that may not be observable to a researcher. This creates both an omitted variable problem 4 For example, see Cox (1982). For a review on voting behavior and homeownership, see Herbert and Belsky (2006). 5 See Dietz and Haurin (2003) for a comprehensive review of this problem. 5 and selection bias, rendering inconsistent estimates and unreliable inferences. More recent studies on social outcomes and homeownership are more conscious of the problem of omitted variables bias and selection effects. For example, Aaronson (2000) finds that the study of Green and White (1997) that examines the effect of homeownership on child outcomes may be flawed because of omitted variable bias and that the homeownership effects found are overstated. Nonetheless, controlling for endogeneity, homeownership still remains an important variable in explaining positive child outcomes.6 In many cases, though, the ability to alleviate selection bias is constrained by the availability of data. This paper augments the work of DiPasquale and Glaeser (1999). To that effect, we use the endogenous switching model7 along with two instruments not previously used to evaluate the causal effect homeownership has on social outcomes. The endogenous switching model allows for the joint determination of the homeownership decision and the decision to invest in one’s community as a renter and as an owner. Moreover, the model allows us to estimate the degree and direction of any non-random selection of individuals into homeownership. The endogenous switching model has been applied to the problem of housing demand in Lee and Trost (1978) and to the problem of education and self-selection in Willis and Rosen (1979). It was also used in Green and White (1997). 3. Model and Estimation The endogenous switching model we estimate comprises three components: a homeownership decision, a social-capital participation decision as 6 Haurin et al. (2002), using a different data set and instrumental variables estimation, corroborates this finding. 7 See, in particular, Maddala (1983) and Amemiya (1985). 6 an owner, and a social-capital participation decision as a renter. Formally, we specify the latent propensity to own, I ∗ , as I ∗ = γZ + where Z is a vector of exogenous observable variables, γ is a vector of parameters, and is an error term. A person is a homeowner if I ∗ > 0, and a renter otherwise. Further, assume that a person’s latent propensity to participate in social ∗ = βo,j X + uo,j , where X is a vector capital activity8 j as an owner is yo,j of observable variables, βo,j is a vector of parameters, and uo,j is an error ∗ term. A homeowner participates in activity j if yo,j > 0. Similarly, the ∗ = βr,j X + ur,j , where X latent propensity to participate as a renter is yr,j is a vector of observable variables, βr,j is a vector of parameters, and ur,j is ∗ > 0. We can write the model an error term. A renter participates if yr,j succinctly as: I ∗ = γZ + , I = 1 iff I ∗ > 0, I = 0 otherwise ∗ if I = 1 : yo,j = βo,j X + uo,j , ∗ yo,j = 1 iff yo,j > 0, yo,j = 0 otherwise ∗ if I = 0 : yr,j = βr,j X + ur,j , ∗ yr,j = 1 iff yr,j > 0, yr,j = 0 otherwise (1) The error terms, , uo,j and ur,j are normally distributed with means zero and variances normalized to 1. Finally, let the correlation between and u0,j be denoted ρo,j , and the correlation between and ur,j be denoted ρr,j . The signs of the correlation coefficients measure the direction and degree of selection into homeownership. 8 We use the term ‘activity’ in this paper to refer to memberships in groups and networks within an individual’s community. This is consistent with Bourdieu (1986), DiPasquale and Glaeser (1999) and Sobel (2002). 7 For each social capital activity j, the log-likelihood function is N n X ln Lj = Ii · yo,i,j · ln Φ (γZi , βo,j Xi , ρo,j ) i=1 + Ii · (1 − yo,i,j ) · ln Φ (γZi , βo,j Xi , −ρo,j ) (2) + (1 − Ii ) · yr,i,j · ln Φ (γZi , βr,j Xi , −ρr,j ) + (1 − Ii ) · (1 − yr,i,j ) · ln Φ (γZi , βr,j Xi , ρr,j ) o We estimate the model using maximum likelihood estimation. The maximum likelihood estimators are consistent and asymptotically normally distributed. The marginal effect of ownership is the effect ownership has on the probability of participation. For the endogenous switching model in (1), the marginal effect of homeownership for a person with characteristics X is the difference between the probability of participation of the person as an owner and as a renter:9 marginal effect j = P (yo,j = 1 | X) − P (yr,j = 1 | X) = Φ (βo,j X) − Φ (βr,j X) . (3) 3.1. Selection The correlation coefficients ρo,j and ρr,j measure the direction and degree of selection into homeownership, and the combinations of signs of these correlation coefficients illuminate the form of ‘comparative advantage’ in utility attainment from the respective social capital investment activities (Maddala (1983)). If ρo,j is negative, for instance, then there is negative selection: 9 See the discussion in Manski et al. (1992). 8 controlling for the effects of observable characteristics, homeowners derive lower latent utility from participating in the particular social capital activity than does the average person in the population. As such, probit underestimates the marginal effect because it underestimates the first probability in equation (3). If ρr,j is negative, then positive selection occurs for renters: controlling for the effects of observable characteristics, positive selection means renters have a higher probability of participation than the average person in the population.10 In this case, probit underestimates the marginal effect of homeownership because it overestimates the second probability in equation (3). The endogenous switching model allows for non-random selection of individuals into homeownership resulting in consistent estimates of the marginal effect of homeownership on participation. 4. Data We use data from a confidential version of the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS). L.A.FANS collected longitudinal data on neighborhoods, families, children, and on residential choice and neighborhood change. Wave 1 of the data was collected from April 2000 to January 2002. Wave 2 was collected from the fall of 2006 to November 2008.11 The confidential version of the dataset that we use identifies each household’s census tract, which allows us to include potentially important neighborhood information such as ownership rates, median rents, and median house values. Our sample includes adults between the age of 25 and 65 who are not in school. In total, the sample consists of 1,603 observations. Table 1 contains summary statistics for the full sample, for owners, and 10 From equation (2), negative correlation indicates positive selection since ρr,j negatively enters the likelihood contribution of renters who participate. 11 See Peterson et al. (2004) for a full description of the survey. 9 for renters. Our participation variables are in the first five rows: 17% of the sample volunteered in a local organization (volunteer ), 13% participated in a neighborhood or block meeting (block meeting), 6% participated in a business or civic group (civic group), 5% participated in a local or state political organization (political organization), and 39% were a member of a church, temple, etc. (religious group). About 39% of the sample are homeowners. Owners are more likely to be married, older, and have higher (real) income and (real) non-housing wealth and education levels. Owners also have longer durations of residence than renters, having, on average, lived in their current residences for about 4 and 1/2 years longer than renters have.12 Finally, in our sample, homeowners live in census tracts with a median house value about $31,000 higher than the median house value in the renters’ census tracts. The (unconditional) marginal effect of homeownership on the participation variables is reported in Table 2. These values are the differences between the participation rates of owners and of renters in the sample. One can see that for each of the participation variables, homeowners are more likely to participate than renters, in some cases by a large margin. For instance, the rate of volunteerism of homeowners is 13.5 percentage points higher than renters. Homeowners are more likely than renters to attend block meetings by 12.1 percentage points and more likely to be members of religious groups by 10.6 percentage points. In contrast, we do not see as great a difference in the relative likelihood of participation in a civic group or in a political organization, though this is not too surprising since the aggregate participation rate of each of these activities is low. Relative to renters, owners are 12 Actual duration of residence is a noisy measure of anticipated duration of residence, a critical determinant of a household’s annualized user cost of homeownership, which in turn determines homeownership. 10 6.4 percentage points more likely to participate in a civic group and 4.2 percentage points more likely to participate in a political organization. The full model estimated below will show whether these effects persist after including control variables and accounting for selection into ownership. 4.1. Instruments To address the endogeneity of homeownership, we include three instruments in this study.13 The instruments are, namely, homeownership rate by census tract, rent-price ratio, the ratio of capitalized median rent to median house value by census tract, and an individual’s non-housing wealth to homevalue ratio.14 It is instructive at this juncture to discuss the motivations for the inclusion of each of these instruments. Like DiPasquale and Glaeser (1999), we include average homeownership rate within a locale to indirectly capture differences in housing costs, income, and local property tax rates. Unlike DiPasquale and Glaeser (1999), which relies on the average homeownership rates by income quartiles and race to achieve state-level variation, we do not segregate homeownership rate by income or race. Instead, because we are able to identify the census tract each household resides in, we are able to merge the homeownership rate for each census tract from the 2000 Census to provide cross-sectional variation for identification. We also use median rent-to-price ratios for each census tract as an instrument. Empirical evidence suggests that the rent-to-price ratio, which acts very much like the dividend yield measure in stock valuation, encapsulates expectations about the rental growth rate, which in turn should 13 Although the model is parametrically identified without any exclusion restrictions, for the results to be convincing there should be at least one variable in the homeownership equation that is not in the participation equation. 14 Rents were capitalized into house values using the formula: house value = (monthly rent)×12/0.5. 11 partially determine homeownership since homeowners could deem owning a home as a hedge against rental risk (Sinai and Souleles (2005) and Campbell et al. (2009)). The third instrument, the ratio of the household’s non-housing wealth to home value, captures the role of housing as a collateral as well as a major consumption component in an individual’s budget function, which should conceivably affect a household’s homeownership decision.15 The validity of these instruments depends on both their relevance (whether they determine homeownership) and exogeneity (whether they determine social capital investment). We discuss the empirical evidence for each condition in detail in Section 5.4 below. The last three rows in Table 1 give the summary statistics for these instruments. In our sample, owners live in census tracts with an average homeownership rate of 62.2 while renters live in census tracts with an average homeownership rate of only 35.1. Owners tend to live in areas where the rent-to-price ratio is higher: the average rent-to-price ratio for homeowners is 1.00 and 0.88 for renters. Homeowners tend to face less collateral constraints; homeowners have a much higher average non-housing wealth to house-value ratio than do renters. The average non-housing wealth to house-value ratio is 0.71 for homeowners compared to only 0.19 for renters. 5. Results In this section, we first provide descriptive results from some simple regressions that ignore any selection into homeownership. We estimate a probit model with homeownership as the dependent variable and include the instruments, homeownership rate, the rent-price ratio, and the non-housing wealth 15 On a related note, variants of the housing collateral ratio have been shown to be an important conditioning macroeconomic variable in determining asset prices. See, for example, Piazzesi et al. (2007) and Lustig and Van Nieuwerburgh (2005). 12 to home-value ratio, as controls in addition to other covariates. We then estimate probit models with participation in various social capital activities as the dependent variable, treating homeownership as an exogenous covariate. These models allows us to contrast the results with our preferred model, the endogenous switching model, which accounts for homeownership selection. 5.1. Homeownership and Participation Probit Regressions Table 3 contains the results of three univariate probit models of homeownership using the combinations of instruments we later use to estimate the switching models.16 The signs of the estimates are as expected, and most of the estimates are significant. Being married, being older, having more children, having higher (real) income, (real) wealth, and education all have positive and significant effects on homeownership. Duration of residence has a positive and statistically significant effect: the longer a person is in their current residence the more likely they are to be an owner. Higher median house values lowers homeownership. The three instruments have the expected signs and are statistically significant at the 1% level.17 Higher aggregate homeownership rates, higher rent-price ratios, and greater non-housing wealth to house-value ratios are positively related to homeownership at the household level. Probit estimates of the participation variables are in Table 4. Since homeownership is the variable of interest here, we compute the marginal effect of 16 These probits are analogous to the the first stage of a two-stage least squares regression. In fact, these univariate homeownership probits are consistent quasi-maximum likelihood estimators of the homeownership equations of the switching model we estimate later (see Avery et al. (1983)). 17 Since rent-price ratio is computed from median house value, median house value is dropped from the probit with rent-price ratio as an instrument. Similarly, the probit with the non-housing wealth to house-value ratio as an instrument cannot include non-housing wealth. 13 ownership for all participation variables. This is presented in the second to last row of Table 4. The marginal effect of homeownership on volunteer and block meeting is 0.05 and 0.074 and statistically significant.18 The marginal effects of homeownership on the other three participation variables is positive but not statistically significant. As we have included control variables in this probit analysis, the estimated marginal effects are naturally smaller than the unconditional estimates in Table 2. Bearing in mind that we have not yet controlled for homeownership selection effects in this particular analysis, the estimates in Table 4 nonetheless indicate some general patterns. Having more education has a positive and significant effect on social capital. Being between 40 and 65 years old has a positive and, for most of the participation variables, significant effect. Men are less likely than women to volunteer or to be part of a religious group. Blacks are more likely to be a part of a religious group or participate in a block meeting or political organization than other groups. Interestingly, duration of residence does not seem to have a big impact, being significant only in the cases of the longest residents for block meeting and religious group. 5.2. Endogenous switching model Individuals may choose to invest in social capital due to the same latent characteristics that make them homeowners. This creates a selection bias in that homeownership is not random even after controlling for observed socio-economic variables. The probit models described above do not take into account the selection problem, or equivalently, the missing data problem (Mare and Winship (1988)). We now discuss the results of our preferred model, the endogenous switching model, which addresses the selection effects 18 Throughout, the standard errors of the marginal effect of homeownership are estimated using 400 bootstrap replications as recommended in Cameron and Trivedi (2010). 14 by jointly modeling the social capital investment decision and the homeownership decision. The estimates of the endogenous switching models using homeownership rate as an instrument are contained in Tables 5 to 9. For each social capital participation variable, three equations are estimated: a homeowner participation equation, a renter participation equation and a homeownership equation. In what follows, we first discuss the robust findings across the five participation variables and then proceed to discuss the results for each participation variable in detail. For each of the five participation variables, the estimates of the homeownership equation are similar, in terms of magnitude and statistical significance, to the probit regression of homeownership in Table 3. This is not surprising since univariate probit is a consistent quasi-maximum likelihood estimator (Avery et al. (1983)). The most robust finding across the participation variables is that education has a strong, positive effect on participation for renters and owners. In contrast to some previous findings, we find little evidence that, in general, duration of residence helps determine participation. Further, we find that for each participation variable except political organization, at least one of the two estimates of the correlation coefficients is statistically non zero. This is evidence that selection is present and that univariate probit estimators do not consistently estimate the effect of homeownership on social capital participation. Further discussion of selection is below in Section 5.3. The marginal effect for each social capital participation variable estimated using the homeownership rate as an instrument is presented in the first row of Table 10. These effects are estimated using equation (3). All estimates are positive indicating that homeownership leads to more social capital investment. The estimates of the marginal effect for the variables volunteer, block meeting, civic group, and religious group are significant at conventional 15 levels. The estimate for political organization is not significant. We note that the estimates are all larger than the probit estimates in Table 4. That is, for all variables, we find that probit underestimates the marginal effect of homeownership, suggesting that negative sample selection is present. This is consistent with the findings in DiPasquale and Glaeser (1999). Overall, the marginal effects are large. An owner is 19.7 percentage points more likely to volunteer and 14.5 percentage points more likely to participate in a block meeting than a renter. An owner is 10.5 percentage points more likely to participate in a civic group than a renter and 15.6 percentage points more likely than a renter to belong to a religious group. Volunteerism The results in Table 5 indicate that male renters and married renters are less likely to participate. Age has a differential impact on an individual’s propensity to volunteer, with the impact varying with a person’s tenure choice. However, none of the age coefficients is statistically different from zero. Education level is important for both the owner and renter equations: more educated people are more likely to volunteer regardless of one’s housing tenure choice. Block Meeting Being married decreases a homeowner’s likelihood to attend block or neighborhood meetings. On the other hand, marital status does not affect a renter’s propensity to attend block meetings. Age has a positive effect on attendance but the effect is statistically significant only for renters. Again, an individual who is either a college graduate or a professional school graduate is more likely to attend block meetings, regardless of whether this individual is a homeowner or a renter. The value of median home values within the census tract one resides in affects attendance in a block meeting positively. This result is consistent with the notion that investment in social capital 16 should correlate positively with home values. Civic Group A married homeowner is less likely to be a civic or a business group member. The number of children has a positive and significant effect only for renters. Renters who are 40 and above are more likely to belong to a civic group. Age has a positive effect for homeowners but the result is not statistically significant. The more educated an individual is, the more likely he or she will participate in a civic group. Political Organization Blacks are more likely to participate in local and state organizations regardless of tenure choice but the effect is stronger for renters. Education has a positive effect on participation in local political organizations for homeowners and renters alike and the effect increases with one’s age. Religious Group Male owners and renters are less likely to belong to a religious group than do females. Being married has a positive effect but only for owners. Black homeowners and renters are more likely to be members of a religious group than others. Older individuals are more likely to be members of a religious group but the effect is stronger for renters. Also, having more children has a positive effect on membership for both owners and renters. Having more education makes one more likely to be a religious group member whether as a homeowner or a renter. Increases in a renter’s duration of residence increases the likelihood of religious membership but duration of residence has no effect for homeowners. 5.3. Selection Effects Estimates of ρo,j are negative and statistically significant for volunteer, block meeting, and civic group. By the arguments made in Section 3.1, this 17 means that, for these variables, owners exhibit negative selection but that there is no simultaneity bias for owners with regards to political organization or religious group. Further, estimates of ρr,j are negative and statistically significant for volunteer and religious group, indicating positive selection for renters for these participation variables. Due to both types of selection, the estimates of the marginal effect of homeownership computed using the endogenous switching model are larger than those computed from probits. That is, not accounting for selection leads to misleadingly low estimates of the role homeownership plays in the decision to investment in social capital. 5.4. Validity of the Instruments In this section we discuss the results of estimating the switching models using the homeownership rate as an instrument along with a second instrument, either the rent-price ratio or the non-housing wealth to house-value ratio. Often, deciding whether or not a potential instrument is exogenous is based on introspection. In the present study, we instead rely on the results of DiPasquale and Glaeser (1999) and suppose that a locale’s homeownership rate is a valid instrument. By including a second instrument, our model is over-identified and this allows us to test the exogeneity of the additional instrument by including it in the participation equations of the switching model. Failure to reject the null hypothesis that the coefficient of a potential instrument is zero is evidence that the variable is indeed exogenous.19 One concern in implementing the above test is that components of our two potential instruments are also explanatory variables in the participation equations. Specifically, the denominator of the rent-price ratio is equal to the median house value and the numerator of the non-housing wealth to 19 This is analogous to including additional potential instruments in the second-stage regression of two-stage least squares when the model is over-identified. See Murray (2006) for more discussion on this approach. 18 house-value ratio is equal to non-housing wealth. If the median house value determines participation in the switching models, then the rent-price ratio is ruled out as an instrument prior to performing the overidentification tests. A similar argument holds for non-housing wealth and the non-housing wealth to house-value ratio. According to the results in Tables 5 to 9, median house value has a statistically significant effect on block meeting, and, thus, we do not instrument for homeownership with the median rent-price ratio for block meeting. Non-housing wealth has a statistically significant effect on civic group, political organization, and religious group, which rules out using the non-housing wealth to house-value ratio as an instrument for these participation variables. For the remaining cases in which we cannot rule out the instruments based on the significance of their components, we cannot reject the null hypothesis that either the rent-to-price ratio or the non-housing wealth to housing wealth ratio have zero coefficients in the participation equations. Given the results in Table 3 that show that the rent-price ratio and the non-housing wealth to house-value ratio determine homeownership, we can therefore conclude that these instruments are valid for the remaining cases. The results of using the additional instruments to estimate the marginal effect of homeownership are in Table 10.20 The results show that adding an instrument makes little difference in the estimates. The estimates of the marginal effects are similar in magnitude to the case of using the homeownership rate alone, suggesting some robustness in our findings. The most consistent change is that, as one might expect, the standard error is smaller with the addition of a second instrument. Attempts to estimate the model 20 To save space, we only report the estimates of the marginal effects of homeownership. There was little change in the estimates of the other parameters of the models. These results are available upon request. 19 using only the rent-price ratio or the non-housing wealth to house-value ratio as an instrument were less successful. In most cases, the estimates of the marginal effects were not statistically significant, indicating that there may not be enough variation or explanatory power in these instruments alone to result in accurate estimates. 6. Conclusion Public policies promoting homeownership are often justified by claims that homeownership improves an individual’s well-being as well as society at large by promoting good citizenship, neighborhood stability, and vibrant and strong communities. Because homeowners can reap any pecuniary benefits that accrue to the value of their property, they are more likely to invest in social capital that are expected to improve the quality of their living environment. Homeowners are also less likely to move and therefore are more likely to interact and network within their local communities, the result of which is a higher propensity to invest in local social capital. While the above claims have sound economic motivation and are intuitively appealing, empirical studies attempting to establish a causal link between homeownership and social capital investment have to account for the endogeneity of homeownership. In this paper, we revisit the relationship between homeownership and social capital, relying on the key insight that homeownership provides a strong incentive for social capital investment since any perceived benefits through social capital accumulation will accrue to homeowners and landlords. We test this hypothesis by estimating an endogenous switching model using individual-level data on community participation and two instruments for homeownership not previously used in this literature. Our paper augments the study of DiPasquale and Glaeser (1999), who find a positive relationship between homeownership and social capital. 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Rosen (1979): “Education and Self-Selection,” Journal of Economic Literature, 87, S7–S36. 25 Full Sample Owners Renters Mean St. Dev. Mean St. Dev. Mean St. Dev. Volunteer 0.17 0.37 0.25 0.43 0.11 0.32 Block meeting 0.13 0.34 0.21 0.41 0.09 0.28 Civic group 0.06 0.25 0.10 0.31 0.04 0.20 Political organization 0.05 0.22 0.08 0.27 0.03 0.18 Religious group 0.39 0.49 0.46 0.50 0.35 0.48 Own 0.39 0.49 1.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Married 0.56 0.50 0.70 0.46 0.46 0.50 Male 0.43 0.50 0.46 0.50 0.42 0.49 Good health 0.82 0.39 0.88 0.32 0.78 0.42 Black 0.10 0.31 0.09 0.29 0.11 0.31 Age 25 - 30 0.18 0.38 0.10 0.30 0.23 0.42 Age 30 - 40 0.41 0.49 0.38 0.49 0.43 0.50 Age 40 - 50 0.28 0.45 0.36 0.48 0.23 0.42 Age 50 - 65 0.12 0.33 0.16 0.36 0.10 0.30 Number of children 1.55 1.26 1.60 1.22 1.52 1.28 High school or less 0.50 0.50 0.34 0.47 0.60 0.49 Some college 0.27 0.45 0.31 0.46 0.25 0.43 College graduate 0.14 0.34 0.20 0.40 0.10 0.30 Prof school graduate 0.09 0.29 0.15 0.36 0.05 0.22 29.52 33.07 43.86 43.20 20.38 19.67 101.57 292.84 210.05 418.90 32.38 127.89 < 1 year 0.17 0.38 0.10 0.31 0.21 0.41 1 to 4 years 0.42 0.49 0.37 0.48 0.45 0.50 Wage ($1000's) Non-housing wealth ($1000's) Duration of residence 4 to 10 years 0.30 0.46 0.34 0.47 0.28 0.45 > 10 years 0.11 0.31 0.18 0.39 0.06 0.23 Ln(median house value) 12.22 0.49 12.31 0.57 12.16 0.43 Homeownership rate 45.62 26.16 62.17 23.64 35.08 21.89 Rent-price ratio 0.93 0.36 1.00 0.44 0.88 0.29 Non-housing weath to house value ratio 0.39 1.20 0.71 1.52 0.19 0.88 Number of observations 1,603 624 Table 1: Summary Statistics 979 owner volunteer block_meet~g civic_group local_org church_mem~r 0.25 0.21 0.10 0.08 0.46 renter volunteer block_meet~g civic_group local_org church_mem~r 0.11 0.09 0.04 0.03 0.35 difference 0.135 0.121 0.064 0.042 0.106 Mean Marginal Effect Volunteer 0.135 Block meeting 0.121 Civic group 0.064 Political organization 0.042 Religious group 0.106 Table 2: Unconditional Marginal Effect of Homeownership on Participation Homeownership Probits Coef. Std. Err. Coef. 0.082 0.270 -0.011 0.077 -0.035 0.107 0.161 0.107 0.181 -0.054 0.131 0.006 0.128 -0.050 0.130 Age 30 - 40 0.045 0.113 0.040 0.113 0.044 0.114 Age 40 - 50 0.289 ** 0.120 0.276 ** 0.120 0.303 *** 0.120 Age 50 - 65 0.461 *** 0.150 0.456 *** 0.150 0.502 *** 0.149 Number of children 0.055 * 0.034 0.058 * 0.034 0.061 * 0.034 Some college 0.201 ** 0.096 0.168 * 0.095 0.191 ** 0.095 College graduate 0.382 *** 0.126 0.293 ** 0.122 0.391 *** 0.125 0.563 *** 0.418 *** 0.619 *** 0.153 0.012 *** 0.002 0.011 *** 0.002 0.012 *** 0.002 Non-housing wealth ($1000's) 0.001 *** 0.000 0.001 *** 0.000 Married Std. Err. Coef. 0.082 0.260 -0.030 0.078 0.174 0.249 Male Good health Black Prof school graduate Wage ($1000's) *** 0.156 *** 0.151 Std. Err. *** 0.082 0.077 * 0.107 Duration of residence 1 to 4 years 0.210 * 0.112 0.220 ** 0.112 0.207 * 0.112 4 to 10 years 0.399 *** 0.118 0.401 *** 0.118 0.369 *** 0.118 > 10 years 0.814 *** 0.156 0.825 *** 0.156 0.786 *** 0.156 -0.552 *** 0.101 -0.427 *** 0.096 0.024 *** 0.002 0.024 *** 0.002 0.098 *** 0.035 2.403 ** 1.143 Ln(median house value) Homeownership rate Rent-price ratio Non-housing weath to house-value ratio Constant 3.931 Pseudo-R2 0.326 *** *** 1.209 0.020 *** 0.002 0.584 *** 0.125 -3.115 *** 0.322 p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1, n = 1,603 Table 3: Ownership Probit Regressions 0.210 0.315 Volunteer Coef. Own 0.226 Married ** -0.015 Male Good health Black Age 40 - 50 Age 50 - 65 Number of children Some college College graduate Prof school graduate Wage ($1000's) Non-housing wealth ($1000's) Coef. 0.091 0.361 0.091 -0.180 0.084 -0.079 0.310 ** 0.129 0.003 0.130 -0.112 0.122 0.060 0.129 0.104 0.162 0.066 * 0.562 *** 0.751 *** 1.004 *** 0.001 0.036 0.103 0.128 0.149 0.001 *** -0.133 ** 0.112 Age 30 - 40 Block Meeting Std.Err. Civic Group Std.Err. Coef. Std.Err. 0.095 0.165 0.121 0.094 -0.131 0.021 0.120 -0.128 0.159 0.076 0.133 -0.079 0.283 0.141 0.193 0.352 ** 0.360 ** 0.329 0.147 0.174 0.037 0.108 0.154 0.132 0.162 0.001 -0.015 0.110 ** ** 0.052 0.027 0.273 0.117 Coef. 0.086 ** 0.003 0.122 Political Organization 0.001 0.423 ** 0.649 *** 0.062 0.178 0.415 0.197 0.017 0.200 0.228 0.048 0.683 *** 0.842 *** 0.852 *** 0.004 *** 0.072 0.442 -0.039 0.810 *** 0.201 1.126 *** 0.001 0.001 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 -0.122 0.118 -0.029 0.124 0.010 0.164 -0.129 0.016 * Std.Err. 0.077 0.276 *** 0.073 0.120 -0.375 *** 0.068 0.192 0.103 0.166 0.577 0.198 0.053 0.090 *** 0.113 0.098 0.312 *** 0.105 0.300 ** 0.133 0.104 *** 0.029 0.263 *** 0.083 0.271 ** 0.112 0.208 0.447 *** 0.138 0.002 -0.001 0.226 0.058 0.534 0.178 0.133 0.206 ** *** 0.149 Coef. 0.136 ** Religious Group Std.Err. 0.167 0.193 0.000 0.000 0.174 0.063 0.001 * 0.000 Duration of residence 1 to 4 years 4 to 10 years > 10 years Ln(median house value) Constant -0.059 -0.022 Own marginal effect 0.050 2 0.128 *** 0.159 0.042 -2.301 Pseudo-R 0.126 0.098 * *** 1.177 0.019 -0.071 0.133 -0.090 0.176 -0.044 0.184 0.097 0.187 * 0.103 *** 0.135 0.333 ** 0.157 0.024 0.208 0.034 0.220 0.367 0.231 ** 0.101 -0.010 0.127 -0.080 0.139 -0.001 0.086 -4.492 *** 1.222 -2.355 1.534 -1.403 1.675 -0.994 1.038 0.074 *** 0.021 0.018 0.013 0.005 0.012 0.006 0.029 0.088 0.133 p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1, n = 1,603 Table 4: Participation Probit Regressions 0.150 0.081 Volunteer Owner participation equation Married Male Good health Black Age 30 - 40 Age 40 - 50 Age 50 - 65 Number of children Some college College graduate Prof school Wage ($1000's) Non-housing wealth ($1000's) Duration of residence 1 to 4 years 4 to 10 years > 10 years Ln(median house value) Homeownership rate Constant Correlation coefficient *** Renter participation equation Coef. Std. Err. Coef. 0.100 -0.065 0.352 0.287 0.052 0.240 0.229 0.033 0.329 0.566 0.642 0.000 0.000 0.143 0.114 0.218 0.194 0.227 0.232 0.265 0.050 0.165 0.193 0.214 0.002 0.000 -0.302 -0.282 0.198 -0.040 -0.211 -0.196 -0.101 0.073 0.575 0.567 1.087 -0.003 0.000 0.200 0.203 0.228 0.137 -0.226 -0.042 0.028 0.065 ** *** *** -0.127 -0.224 -0.321 0.186 -3.429 ** 1.626 -2.246 -0.432 *** 0.135 -0.536 ** ** *** *** *** Std. Err. Coef. 0.122 0.121 0.157 0.175 0.144 0.166 0.220 0.050 0.139 0.190 0.236 0.003 0.000 0.243 -0.027 0.185 -0.043 0.055 0.300 0.462 0.055 0.202 0.364 0.564 0.011 0.001 *** 0.146 0.158 0.256 0.144 0.210 0.400 0.812 -0.548 0.024 3.873 * 1.723 *** 0.208 p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1, n = 1,603 -3.192 -2.575 Table 5: Endogenous - Volunteer 0.0007 Switching Model0.005 0.0014 0.010 Home ownership equation Std. Err. * *** *** * ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 0.082 0.077 0.107 0.130 0.113 0.120 0.150 0.033 0.095 0.125 0.155 0.002 0.000 0.112 0.118 0.156 0.100 0.002 1.202 Block Meeting Owner participation equation Coef. ** Renter participation equation Std. Err. Coef. Std. Err. Coef. 0.142 0.120 0.213 0.198 0.247 0.251 0.280 0.054 0.167 0.195 0.219 0.002 0.000 -0.107 -0.188 -0.048 0.145 0.352 0.264 0.432 0.051 0.099 0.324 0.150 -0.004 0.000 0.133 0.129 0.151 0.190 0.176 0.201 0.245 0.052 0.158 0.210 0.289 0.004 0.000 0.252 -0.034 0.170 -0.053 0.049 0.289 0.459 0.054 0.200 0.381 0.566 0.012 0.001 *** 0.211 0.218 0.243 0.144 -0.074 -0.130 0.540 0.258 0.158 0.178 0.247 0.157 0.209 0.394 0.808 -0.559 0.024 4.014 * Married Male Good health Black Age 30 - 40 Age 40 - 50 Age 50 - 65 Number of children Some college College graduate Prof school Wage ($1000's) Non-housing wealth ($1000's) Duration of residence 1 to 4 years 4 to 10 years > 10 years Ln(median house value) Homeownership rate Constant -0.281 0.081 0.188 0.432 0.172 0.371 0.219 -0.071 0.116 0.296 0.136 0.002 0.000 -4.609 *** 1.723 -4.728 Correlation coefficient -0.265 * 0.157 -0.042 *** -0.038 -0.091 0.098 0.292 ** ** ** * ** * ** 1.886 0.248 p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1, n = 1,603 -1.689 -0.17 Table 6: Endogenous Switching Model -0.4326 Block Meeting 0.0456 0.0912 Home ownership equation 0.8652 Std. Err. ** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 0.082 0.078 0.107 0.131 0.113 0.120 0.150 0.034 0.096 0.126 0.156 0.002 0.000 0.113 0.119 0.157 0.101 0.002 1.209 Civic Group Owner participation equation Coef. Married Male Good health Black Age 30 - 40 Age 40 - 50 Age 50 - 65 Number of children Some college College graduate Prof school Wage ($1000's) Non-housing wealth ($1000's) Duration of residence 1 to 4 years 4 to 10 years > 10 years Ln(median house value) Homeownership rate Constant Correlation coefficient *** -0.421 -0.012 0.106 0.266 0.063 0.132 0.223 -0.048 0.379 0.481 0.491 0.003 0.000 *** * * * -0.267 -0.293 -0.169 0.017 -1.185 -0.549 *** Renter participation equation Std. Err. Coef. Std. Err. Coef. 0.163 0.140 0.258 0.217 0.297 0.302 0.332 0.064 0.218 0.254 0.278 0.002 0.000 0.012 0.050 -0.344 -0.551 0.205 0.487 0.869 0.197 0.875 0.999 1.023 0.006 0.001 0.189 0.179 0.216 0.347 0.269 0.284 0.345 0.074 0.222 0.279 0.321 0.004 0.000 0.246 -0.036 0.168 -0.060 0.043 0.287 0.460 0.056 0.205 0.381 0.552 0.012 0.001 *** 0.235 0.241 0.265 0.169 0.106 -0.081 -0.225 0.064 0.234 0.265 0.431 0.205 0.203 0.398 0.807 -0.558 0.023 4.020 * * ** *** *** *** *** * 1.995 -3.659 2.462 0.141 0.024 0.271 p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1, n = 1,603 -3.902 0.0899 Table 7: Endogenous - Civic Group 5E-05Switching Model 0.5358 1E-04 Home ownership equation 1.0716 Std. Err. ** *** * ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 0.082 0.078 0.107 0.131 0.113 0.120 0.150 0.034 0.095 0.126 0.156 0.002 0.000 0.112 0.118 0.156 0.101 0.002 1.205 Political Organization Owner participation equation Married Male Good health Black Age 30 - 40 Age 40 - 50 Age 50 - 65 Number of children Some college College graduate Prof school Wage ($1000's) Non-housing wealth ($1000's) Duration of residence 1 to 4 years 4 to 10 years > 10 years Ln(median house value) Homeownership rate Constant Correlation coefficient *** Renter participation equation Home ownership equation Coef. Std. Err. Coef. Std. Err. Coef. -0.055 0.112 0.597 0.239 0.224 0.027 0.356 -0.026 0.622 0.741 1.197 0.000 0.000 0.207 0.167 0.434 0.265 0.368 0.379 0.401 0.077 0.290 0.315 0.326 0.002 0.000 -0.043 -0.096 -0.177 0.631 -0.262 0.061 0.489 -0.074 0.453 0.905 0.943 0.003 0.000 0.203 0.185 0.239 0.227 0.257 0.265 0.302 0.094 0.232 0.281 0.332 0.004 0.001 0.251 -0.030 0.173 -0.054 0.043 0.288 0.460 0.054 0.200 0.383 0.565 0.011 0.001 *** 0.285 0.289 0.326 0.194 -0.127 -0.104 0.074 -0.067 0.230 0.258 0.360 0.223 0.207 0.393 0.811 -0.553 0.024 3.943 * -0.270 -0.149 -0.148 -0.069 ** ** *** * *** * *** *** -1.778 2.350 -1.324 2.656 -0.167 0.249 -0.225 0.329 p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1, n = 1,603 -0.671 -0.685 Table 8: Endogenous 0.251 Switching Model - Political 0.2465Organization 0.5019 0.4931 Std. Err. ** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 0.082 0.078 0.107 0.131 0.113 0.120 0.151 0.034 0.096 0.126 0.156 0.002 0.000 0.112 0.119 0.156 0.101 0.002 1.208 Religious Group Owner participation equation Coef. *** Renter participation equation Std. Err. Coef. Std. Err. Coef. 0.131 0.107 0.174 0.193 0.199 0.203 0.237 0.049 0.145 0.174 0.202 0.002 0.000 0.150 -0.361 0.031 0.586 0.105 0.302 0.282 0.080 0.181 0.195 0.389 -0.006 -0.001 0.093 0.089 0.105 0.139 0.112 0.131 0.172 0.037 0.110 0.160 0.211 0.003 0.000 0.246 -0.037 0.185 -0.046 0.048 0.294 0.469 0.055 0.201 0.378 0.557 0.012 0.001 *** 0.187 0.191 0.219 0.133 0.124 0.270 0.379 0.117 0.114 0.126 0.207 0.120 0.223 0.404 0.806 -0.540 0.023 3.778 ** Married Male Good health Black Age 30 - 40 Age 40 - 50 Age 50 - 65 Number of children Some college College graduate Prof school Wage ($1000's) Non-housing wealth ($1000's) Duration of residence 1 to 4 years 4 to 10 years > 10 years Ln(median house value) Homeownership rate Constant 0.359 -0.366 0.236 0.635 -0.208 0.062 0.023 0.121 0.234 0.221 0.408 -0.001 0.000 -0.601 1.558 -2.345 * 1.444 Correlation coefficient -0.171 0.161 -0.384 ** 0.162 *** -0.242 -0.161 0.014 0.005 *** *** *** ** * *** *** ** ** * * ** ** * p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1, n = 1,603 -1.064 -2.373 Table 9: Endogenous Switching Model - 0.0088 Religious Group 0.1438 0.2875 Home ownership equation 0.0176 Std. Err. * ** *** * ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 0.082 0.078 0.107 0.130 0.113 0.120 0.150 0.033 0.095 0.126 0.155 0.002 0.000 0.112 0.118 0.156 0.101 0.002 1.210 Volunteer Instruments M.E. Ownership rate 0.197 Ownership rate and rent-price ratio a Ownership rate and non-housing wealth to house value ratiob *** Block Meeting Std.Err. M.E. *** 0.056 0.145 0.191 *** 0.052 --- 0.211 *** 0.054 0.151 *** *** Civic Group Std.Err. M.E. 0.053 0.105 --- 0.104 0.049 --- Political Organization Religious Group Std.Err. M.E. Std.Err. M.E. Std.Err. ** 0.054 0.032 0.036 0.156 ** 0.064 ** 0.054 0.033 0.030 0.136 ** 0.062 --- --- --- --- --- 0.182 2.424 0.008 p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1 a Rent-price ratio is not a valid instrument since median house value was found to be a determinant of block meeting participation. b Non-housing wealth to house value ratio is not a valid instrument since non-housing wealth was found to be a determinant of civic group, local organization, and religious group participation. Table 10: Homeownership Marginal Effect (Switching Model) 3.549 0.000 2.742 0.000 3.693 3.919 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.003 1.944 0.006 0.001 0.002 0.909 0.052 1.948 3.058 0.026 0.026 0.051 0.363 1.085 0.139 0.278 0.015 2.206 0.014 0.027