From Bricks to Babies: Housing Stock as a Determinant of Fertility

From Bricks to Babies: Housing Stock as a Determinant of Fertility | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article From Bricks to Babies: Housing Stock as a Determinant of Fertility Roberto Balado-Naves, Álvaro Muñiz-Fernández This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6557865/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This paper explores the relationship between housing stock and fertility, not only through its effect on prices but also by alleviating housing scarcity and expanding the availability of homes for families. Both our theoretical model and empirical analysis, using Spanish provincial data on housing stock, new housing stock, and fertility, suggest that a sustained one percentage point increase in net housing growth rates leads to an increase in fertility rates between 1.13% and 3.36% over an extended period. In the specific case of Spanish provinces, we estimate they lost on average, between 0.7 and 1.7 children per hundred fertile women. JEL Classification: D10, J13, R31 Fertility housing stock Spain Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files FROMBRICKSTOBABIESONLINEAPPENDIX.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6557865","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":465467171,"identity":"51e6c969-662e-461e-83ee-a670e761ead6","order_by":0,"name":"Roberto Balado-Naves","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Oviedo","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Roberto","middleName":"","lastName":"Balado-Naves","suffix":""},{"id":465467172,"identity":"8eba73e6-058e-44f0-b93e-f59d7f5de909","order_by":1,"name":"Álvaro Muñiz-Fernández","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA4ElEQVRIie3OoQvCQBTH8TcOzrKx+kQ4/wLh5EAW/GMcgkktRkUUYVHrRPw/jDsGWg6zYNGuoEVmETcxiRyzGe5bXnkf+AGYTH9aBOBl1zoAIADJRzC7hOcm8CYUc/1Wwo6UyQD92SJe952Vx/gGrGOiIbVdtxHhGv1w22rtHYWCx0CErSVtHnGKApRd2zsB+vMJ0JJu2Is0HijKKem9SeGuH5YSGSDjKSEZmRGgoB2mTlyOp8iqijaLywCFS6xJSUs2bXFNbnWbKSIv52DIqBvLq27Yt6zRj8BkMplMnz0BuwBFbg+AHsAAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"University of Oviedo","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Álvaro","middleName":"","lastName":"Muñiz-Fernández","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-04-29 15:23:16","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6557865/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6557865/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":86971267,"identity":"fd70de15-2927-4992-8f9f-b19cf110f151","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-07-17 19:01:41","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":446716,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"FROMBRICKSTOBABIESWP.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6557865/v1_covered_079c967d-2e3e-4864-b8b2-a59b4d138529.pdf"},{"id":83973650,"identity":"ce0014b6-ccbb-4cf3-86f2-d0909b0a9fac","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-05 08:38:12","extension":"docx","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":19526,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"FROMBRICKSTOBABIESONLINEAPPENDIX.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6557865/v1/cc9e5ec290abfd4c9d9949cf.docx"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eFrom Bricks to Babies: Housing Stock as a Determinant of Fertility\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Fertility, housing stock, Spain","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6557865/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6557865/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThis paper explores the relationship between housing stock and fertility, not only through its effect on prices but also by alleviating housing scarcity and expanding the availability of homes for families. Both our theoretical model and empirical analysis, using Spanish provincial data on housing stock, new housing stock, and fertility, suggest that a sustained one percentage point increase in net housing growth rates leads to an increase in fertility rates between 1.13% and 3.36% over an extended period. In the specific case of Spanish provinces, we estimate they lost on average, between 0.7 and 1.7 children per hundred fertile women.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJEL Classification:\u003c/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e \u003c/em\u003eD10, J13, R31\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"From Bricks to Babies: Housing Stock as a Determinant of Fertility","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-06-05 08:30:07","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6557865/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"30c002d6-325a-4a7d-bed8-aa7fab9df99a","owner":[],"postedDate":"June 5th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-07-17T18:53:32+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-06-05 08:30:07","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6557865","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6557865","identity":"rs-6557865","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}