International Fellows Research 2019

Professor Rowlingson gives an account of her collaboration with Dr Irni Johan as part of the project 'Monitoring Financial Inclusion in the UK':

‘Irni gave her seminar on the first day of her fellowship and the feedback from this was very helpful when working on the paper we are developing.  We also met with Lindsey Appleyard, CHASM Associate, to discuss the paper and then myself and Irni worked intensively together on all aspects of the paper including the data analysis.  The paper is now drafted and the three of us are making some final edits before sending off to a journal for review.  In the context of increasing financialisation across the globe, the paper critically reviews the concepts of financial capability and inclusion, and the relationship between the two.  It then applies this critical approach to an analysis of data on financial capability and inclusion in Southeast Asia.   We argue that financial capability and inclusion are complex concepts which need to be understood in the context of the particular society and economy within which they are being discussed.  And while existing research shows a correlation between growth and financial capability/inclusion, this should not lead to simplistic assumptions but, again, needs to be considered alongside other evidence, for example, a correlation between inequality and financial capability/inclusion. 

Irni also attended the CHASM annual conference and a conference on Developments in Alternative Finance run by Professor Hisham Farag and co-sponsored by Birmingham Business School on Birmingham Business School and the Journal of Corporate Finance.  She also took part in discussions about establishing a network on Southeast Asian Social Policy and we also discussed potential collaboration between the University of Birmingham and Bogor Agricultural University in Indonesia.’

Louise Overton offers an account of her collaboration with Dr Oana Druta on the project 'Home investments and ageing-in-place: comparing policy contexts and household practices in the UK and the Netherlands':

I was very pleased to work with Dr Oana Druta, from Eindhoven University of Technology, in The Netherlands, as part of this year’s CHASM International Fellows Scheme.

Dr Druta and I began our preparation and analysis for an article which will be submitted to the journal: Policy and Politics, on the changing role of housing to support ‘Ageing in Place’ in the Netherlands and the UK. We are analysing key health, social care and housing policy documents over a ten year period in the two countries, to map the changes, identify the assumptions underpinning this policy shift, and to offer a critical reflection on these assumptions using existing evidence on older people’s experiences, attitudes and practices.

We have made plans for ongoing collaborative work, including a special issue to the European Journal of Housing Policy on ‘Housing, ageing and wellbeing’, and further research work in this area.

Dr Cook and Dr Druta delivered a joint CHASM seminar while they were here on the theme ‘Shifting responsibilities: homeownership and life-course transitions in a comparative perspective’ which was very well attended and prompted interesting and stimulating discussion from the audience.

It was my pleasure to host Oana, and I very much look forward to our ongoing and future work together.

Louise Overton offers an account of the collaboration with Dr Julia Cook on the project 'The bidirectional impact of intergenerational transfers for entry into the property market: Understanding wellbeing implications for donors and recipients':

I was delighted to work with Dr Julia Cook from the University of Newcastle as part of this year’s CHASM International Fellows Scheme.

There was very little time for Julia to acclimatise as we hit the ground running with fieldwork on day 2 of her visit, and completed 30 in-depth interviews in just over a week! We interviewed parents and their adult children about the financial support they had given/received for the purpose of entry into home ownership. This research was made possible by the College of Social Sciences Quality Output Support Scheme (CoSS QoSS) as well as the CHASM International Fellows scheme.

Initial key findings included:

• The biggest barrier to purchasing a home without parental assistance was the size of the deposit required by lenders, and the cost of legal and administrative fees.

• All of the young adults in our sample had saved some money towards the cost of purchasing their first home, but were unable to save enough to meet their housing needs and preferences. They had employed multiple savings strategies and in some cases made sacrifices such as ceasing pension contributions. While some considered other means of meeting the shortfall (such as using their overdraft) none felt that other means of financing would be viable for them, meaning that they commonly framed their options as either accepting financial support from relatives or waiting to save more money before purchasing a house.

• While many of the donors and recipients considered the option of waiting to accrue savings before entering into the property market rather than providing/receiving a gift or loan from family, the idea that the rising costs of property could outstrip the rate at which young adults were able to save was commonly cited as a motivation and justification for both giving and receiving funds. 
• Financial support from parents was used to meet the upfront costs of house purchase, as well as for home improvements to a lesser extent.
• The sums of money gifted or loaned ranged from £2000 to £34,000. For the most part, parents had gifted the money.
• Some donors were well placed to provide this support, reporting that it made very little or no difference to their ability to meet their own financial needs.
• Others were much less well off, and had used modest pension savings, pay-outs from life insurance policies, and other means, to help their child buy their first home. This meant some participants were exposed to potentially significant income shocks and financial risk and uncertainty.
• There was an overriding consensus among the younger and older participants that home ownership was a sound investment; the best kind of investment. This was underlined by the widespread aspiration among first time buyers to own multiple properties in the future. It was also connected to the centrality of home ownership to peoples’ long term sense of (material and symbolic) security. Having a home of one’s own appeared to provide certainty in an otherwise uncertain future.

So far, we have used this preliminary analysis to respond to the FCA’s discussion on Intergenerational Differences (DP19/2), but our analysis is ongoing and we have planned two journal articles which we will submit to the Journal of Social Policy and Sociology. We will also be considering further opportunities for collaboration in our shared area of interest related to changing intergenerational dynamics.

Dr Cook and Dr Druta delivered a joint CHASM seminar while they were here on the theme ‘Shifting responsibilities: homeownership and life-course transitions in a comparative perspective’ which was very well attended and prompted interesting and stimulating discussion from the audience.

It was my pleasure to host Julia, and I very much look forward to our ongoing and future work together.