Moving after separation: the role of location-specific capital

Clara H. Mulder, University of Groningen, Population Research Centre
Michael Wagner, Universitaet Koeln

We address the role of location-specific capital – the ties that bind people to a place – in which ex-partners of two-sex couples move after separation or divorce. We use data from the first and second waves of the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (N = 361) to test hypotheses on the impact of individual home-ownership, prior residential history, and the nearby presence of parents on whether a separated person moves. Who owned the home and whether someone’s ex-partner moved in upon partnership formation are of prime importance to whether a separated person moves. Furthermore, separated persons whose parents live nearby and those who have a long history of living in the same municipality have a smaller probability of moving than other separated persons.