Does Cohort Size Matter to Residential Mobility? The Case of Barcelona's Central City

Antonio López-Gay, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Juan Antonio Módenes, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Clara H. Mulder, University of Groningen

Following up Easterlin’s arguments about the impact of cohort size on demographic issues, the paper aims to explore the implications of cohort size on the residential mobility patterns of Barcelona's central city. The fertility decline that followed the baby boom in Spain was dramatic, and produced big size differences among cohorts born within a short period of time. Moreover, the intensity of residential mobility in Spain is low and very concentrated in the household formation ages. This characteristic emphasizes the importance of cohort size in terms of competition: after members of large cohorts have moved they no longer cause a strong pressure on the housing market. According to the literature, large cohorts face greater competition than small cohorts in multiple aspects and the housing market is included among them. As a consequence, our hipothesis is that boomers have moved later and farther than smaller cohorts.