A striking passage from “Intergenerational Transfers and Inheritance”:

[A] large and growing difference exists between Germany and Italy in rates of coresidence of young adults with their parents.  In Italy, 50% of young women and 70% of young men still live in the parental home, while in Germany the corresponding rates are 10% and 30%.

Normally, women are closer to their parents than men – and resent their interference less – so I’d expect the reverse pattern.  Is this just a German-Italian thing?  Nope.  It weakly holds for 15 out of 15 EU countries – men’s rates of coresidence are greater than or equal to women’s every time.  I couldn’t find U.S. data, but at this point I’m not expecting to see any American exceptionalism.

Living with my parents had so little appeal for me that I have trouble getting inside the head of any man – or woman – who’d consider it.  Can someone help me out?  What’s going on here?