Death of a Spouse and Residential Mobility in France: Cumulative Disadvantages at Older Ages

Cumulative disadvantage is a mechanism often discussed in life-course sociology: faced with the same biographical ‘shocks’, individuals with fewer resources will be more severely impacted, leading to greater inequalities with older age. We tested this principle in relation to the specific case of residential mobility following the death of a spouse. Drawing on data from France’s Permanent Demographic Sample, a large panel representative of the French population, and employing a matching technique, we show that widowhood results in increased excess mobility and deterioration of housing situation as one moves down the socioeconomic hierarchy, in accordance with the hypothesis of cumulative disadvantage. The oldest widows and widowers are also the most impacted. On the other hand, the residential consequences of widowhood are similar for men and women, other than there being a greater propensity among men to enter an institution. These findings remind us that older people should not be considered a homogeneous group in studies on ageing.