Evaluating the impact of housing market liberalization on the timing of marriage: Evidence from Egypt

Abstract

The transition to adulthood around the world is increasingly characterized by young people’s desire to form independent households. Forming such households in Egypt requires buying or building a dwelling or obtaining a rental unit. Policies governing housing markets, such as rent control, and limited financing options have historically made access to housing for young couples challenging. In this paper, we use a difference-in-difference approach to evaluate how the liberalization of rental markets in Egypt affected the timing of marriage. We find that Egypt’s 1996 rental reforms accelerated marriages and led to a reversal in the trend of rising age at marriage.

Keywords:

• marriage
• housing
• house prices
• rent control
• market liberalization
• living arrangements
• Egypt

Notes

1 Ragui Assaad is based in the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota; Caroline Krafft is at the Department of Economics and Political Science, St. Catherine University; and Dominique J. Rolando is in the Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, all in the USA.

2 Please direct all correspondence to Caroline Krafft, Department of Economics and Political Science, St. Catherine University, 2004 Randolph Avenue, St. Paul, MN, 55105, USA; or by Email: [email protected]

3 The authors acknowledge funding from the Economic Research Forum.

4 ELMPS data are publicly available from the Economic Research Forum’s Open Access Micro Data Initiative at www.erfdataportal.com/index.php/catalog

5 Replication code is available on the corresponding author’s personal website: www.carolinekrafft.com/publications.

6 The authors appreciate the comments of participants at the Economic Research Forum’s Economics of Life Course Transitions workshop held 26 May 2016, Cairo, Egypt. The authors acknowledge the literature review assistance of Khandker Wahedur Rahman and Sarah Wahby.