Aggregated Needs and the Location Choice of Households in Taipei

This paper examines the impact of aggregated needs of household members on the choice of housing location in Taipei, Taiwan, using a sample of 11,191 households and information collected from the 1990 Census of Population and Housing. Our results indicate that the choice of housing location is significantly affected impacted by the age, family origin, past housing location, education and occupation status, and the location of the workplaces of both spouses. We also find that this decision is more significantly influenced by the attributes of the male spouse than the female. However, among the households with a female household head, the female spouse characteristics are more likely to be significant. Our results also offer a snapshot of today’s Taiwanese culture and shows that it is dramatically different from the commonly believed male-dominated traditional Chinese culture.