Homeownership and Entrepreneurship: The Role of Mortgage Debt and Commitment

Philippe Bracke, Christian Hilber and Olmo Silva ()

No 5048, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: We study the link between homeownership, mortgage debt, and entrepreneurship using a model of occupational choice and housing tenure where homeowners commit to mortgage payments. Our model predicts that, as long as mortgage rates exceed the rate of interest on liquid wealth: (i) mortgage debt, by amplifying risk aversion, diminishes the likelihood that homeowners start a business; and (ii) the negative relation between mortgage debt and entrepreneurship is more pronounced when income volatility is higher. Our model further predicts that the relation between housing wealth and entrepreneurship is ambiguously signed because of competing portfolio and hedging considerations. Exploiting the longitudinal dimension of the British Household Panel Survey to control for unobservables, we test and confirm these predictions. A one standard deviation increase in leverage makes a homeowner 10-12 percent less likely to become an entrepreneur.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; homeownership; mortgage debt; leverage; commitment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D14 G11 L26 R21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_5048

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