Separation and housing trajectories in Britain – Opportunities and challenges of using sequence analysis on panel data

Presenter: Julia Mikolai, University of St Andrews

Using data from the British Household Panel Survey, we conduct sequence analysis to study separated men’s and women’s housing tenure trajectories in Great Britain. Using sequence analysis on panel data presents a challenge because whilst sequence analysis requires balanced data, attrition is present in the BHPS (and more generally in panel datasets). To overcome this problem, we select individuals who experienced (at least one) separation and use time since separation as the timeline for sequence analysis. We, then, study emerging patterns of housing tenure transitions among separated individuals across the life course using optimal matching and cluster analysis. Using housing tenure and the number of moves we distinguish five types of housing tenure trajectories among separated individuals: persistent homeowners, mover homeowners, persistent social renters, mover social renters, and private renters. The analysis shows that overall, men are more likely to move out of the joint home after separation than women. They are more likely to move to homeownership and private renting, whereas women are more likely to stay in social housing and to move to social housing. There is also an expected educational gradient: Individuals with secondary and tertiary levels of education are more likely to move to private renting and homeownership, whereas people with lower educational levels have a high propensity to stay in or to move to social housing.