Does housing market impair employment in The Czech Republic?

Abstract

Purpose

The main aim of this paper is to find whether homeownership can have detrimental effect on employment in The Czech Republic.

Design/methodology/approach

Oswald’s conjecture is tested on the set of panel data across Czech regions between the years of 2005 and 2012.

Findings

By testing a model similar to Oswald’s, this paper receives the similar result that the rate of homeownership leads to higher rate of unemployment in following years. The second model tested in the paper does not support previous findings that regional rate of homeownership has negative effect on individual’s probability of being unemployed.

Research limitations/implications

Findings of this paper are valid only for The Czech Republic. Possible refinements to the model are presented as inspiration for further research.

Practical implications

Results bring a powerful argument into debate about subsidization of homeowners through building societies.

Originality/value

This paper is a first examination of Oswald’s hypothesis in The Czech Republic. It opens a debate about whether Oswald’s conjecture holds outside of the Western world.

Citation

Konecný, M. and Stroukal, D. (2015), "Does housing market impair employment in The Czech Republic?", International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 318-334. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHMA-09-2014-0039