DYNAMICS OF HOUSEHOLD EXPENDITURES ON TRANSPORT AND HOUSING: THE CASE OF PARIS REGION

This paper analyzed the proportions of the household budget devoted to transport and housing in the Paris region, according to residential location and to standard of living. The data are from the INSEE Family Budget surveys in 1978-79, 1984-85, 1989 and 1994-95. Cross-sectional analysis shows changes in the socioeconomic characteristics of households as one moves from the center to the periphery: average household size and the percentage of home-buying households increase, while income per consumption unit falls. Thus, budgetary constraints and property prices force low-income households to live in the periphery (particularly if they wish to become home-owners). The average percentage of their income that households allocate to housing is roughly the same in all zones. However, the further a household lives from the center the higher the percentage of its budget that is devoted to transport. This would seem to cast doubt on the existence of a trade-off between the cost of housing and the cost of transport, at least in the case of low-income households. Over the whole period covered by the surveys, the differences between the center and the periphery with regards to income per consumption unit have increased. Inequalities with regard to the percentage of the budget, which they devote to housing and transport have increased, both between different zones and between high income and low income households.