Moving to Place: The Effect of Age-Friendly Neighborhoods on Later-Life Wellbeing

• In Event: Place-Based and Housing Supply Policy: Market and Health Impacts

Abstract

A central goal of housing and long-term care policy is supporting our aging population’s ability to remain independent in their homes and communities for as long as possible, especially given the rising cost of institutional care. The built environment is a critical component in supporting aging in place. In prior work, we found that moving significantly increases the likelihood of living closer to adult children and grandchildren, and that such moves are more likely to lead older adults to high-density zip codes and large metropolitan areas, urban features that are well-established proxies for being aging-friendly. However, significant selection bias in mobility decisions complicates our understanding of the longer term outcomes associated with these moves. Does moving to an age-friendly location actually improve health and wellbeing?

We estimate the causal effect of moving to age-friendly neighborhoods on health and well-being using geocoded panel data on older adults and their children from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), merged with neighborhood-characteristic data. To address endogeneity, we employ a three-stage instrumental variables strategy. First, we model residential choice using a multinomial logit model, leveraging exogenous variables such as Social Security and Medicare-eligibility thresholds as proxies for retirement-induced mobility, coupled with child-specific pull factors such as birth of a grandchild, to predict destination choice. Together, these factors provide plausibly exogenous variation driving older adults towards specific children and their locations. We then use the predicted probabilities from this choice model as instruments in a 2SLS framework.

This research design allows us to identify the causal effect of moves towards age-friendly neighborhoods. We compare health and well-being outcomes across four distinct groups: parents moving to age-friendly neighborhoods near a child, those moving to a child in less aging-friendly areas, those moving elsewhere, and those who remain in place.

We further examine the role of informal caregiving, both the receipt of eldercare and the provision of childcare for grandchildren, as key mediators in the relationship between residential relocation and parental well-being.By disentangling the unique contributions of family proximity from the built environment in supporting healthy aging, our findings contribute to a growing body of work on aging, family, and place, informing both local planning and long-term care policy.

Authors

• Jaclene Begley, --
  Presenting Author

• Grace Beata Brang, New York University
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Sewin Chan, New York University
  Non-Presenting Co-Author