Single parents face rental bias; gender makes no difference
A Swedish field experiment testing 2,000 landlords found that lone parenthood significantly reduces housing approval odds, while gender offers no advantage either way. The finding challenges decades of research suggesting women get preferential treatment in rental markets and suggests family structure, not gender, drives landlord decisions.
Originaltitel: Gender and Lone Parenthood in Rental Housing: Theory and Experiment
<p>We examine how gender and lone parenthood influence access to rental housing opportunities. We outline theoretical mechanisms through which gender and parental status may shape landlord decision-making and hypothesize that women fare better than men overall in the rental housing market, but that the gender advantage reduces once lone parenthood is present. The hypotheses were tested through a correspondence test field experiment where inquiries from fictitious applicants - varying by gender and parental status - were sent to 2,000 landlords in Sweden. We found a negative effect of lone parenthood on responses, but no evidence that gender affected access, regardless of parental status. This contrasts with previous literature, which has predominantly reported advantages for women. We discuss potential explanations for this divergence between our experiment, our theoretical predictions, and prior research.</p>