Household Formation in Developed Societies

A variety of demographic phenomena common to developed societies (e.g. declining fertility rising divorce rising proportions living alone) are viewed as part of a general trend toward separate living and smaller households and as different forms of an underlying coresidential decision-behavioral answers to the question With whom shall I live? Household status is seen as a composite good and is discussed in terms of a demand-supply framework. Nine specific hypotheses to explain the trend toward separate living are discussed within this framework. (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA) (EXCERPT)