The effect of Employment on Leaving Home in Italy

The paper examines simultaneously the leaving home and the employment decision of young Italians (aged 18-34). Stylized facts and previous studies have shown that when studying leaving home decision in Italy the probability of finding a job should also be analysed. The sample consists of young Italians (aged 18-34) drawn from European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) for the period 2004-2011, thus the time span gives us the possibility to look at individuals before and after the economic crisis. Moreover, the paper analyses the association between the economic status of the family of origin and the nest-leaving decision. We have estimated a bivariate probit model for the probability of leaving home and being employed allowing the error terms to be correlated. Results have shown that employment is a key factor to escape from parental home. According to the existing literature, individuals from richer family have higher probability of leaving home. As expected, after 2008 young Italians are less likely to leave parental home and to be employed.