Although the economic literature has analyzed some components of the headship decision, study of household formation has been primarily in the realm of demography. We begin with a pure demographic model and expand it to include additional determinants of the decision to remain with parents or...

While reverse mortgages are intended as a tool to enable financial security for older homeowners, in 2014, nearly 12 percent of reverse mortgage borrowers in the federally insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program were in default on their property taxes or homeowners insurance....

This study follows teens through young adulthood as they transition to independent living. We focus on a little-studied issue: why some youths live in groups rather than alone or with parents. This choice is important because the size of the group has a substantial impact on the demand for...

In the standard urban model, employment is concentrated in the Central Business District (CBD) and the locational choice of households is modeled solely on access to the employment center. Now, technology has facilitated the emergence of new office environments where work is done at...

Given that India's urban areas contribute to nearly two-thirds of its gross domestic product, even though they account for only 31% of the country's population, they have been rightly called the engines of India's growth. In this paper, I answer the following questions: What are the economic...

Urbanization has both benefits and costs. In a market economy, the trade-off between benefits and costs determines the level, speed, and pace of urbanization. This paper summarizes research findings on how urbanization enhances productivity and economic growth in both rural and urban sectors,...

In this study an attempt has been made to assess the potential of land as a municipal financing tool in four Indian cities, to enable better public service delivery and attainment of the MDGs. The institutional arrangements for land use are fragmented in India's cities between the urban...

We use large survey data sets of firms provided by the World Bank for China, India, and Brazil—Investment Climate Surveys—to address the important question: what determines the locational choice of firms among cities in these countries. We find that capital cities in all countries are...