Working Paper: NBER ID: w11577
Authors: Jeffrey R. Kling; Jeffrey B. Liebman; Lawrence F. Katz
Abstract: Families, primarily female-headed minority households with children, living in high-poverty public housing projects in five U.S. cities were offered housing vouchers by lottery in the Moving to Opportunity program. Four to seven years after random assignment, families offered vouchers lived in safer neighborhoods that had lower poverty rates than those of the control group not offered vouchers. We find no significant overall effects of this intervention on adult economic self-sufficiency or physical health. Mental health benefits of the voucher offers for adults and for female youth were substantial. Beneficial effects for female youth on education, risky behavior, and physical health were offset by adverse effects for male youth. For outcomes exhibiting significant treatment effects, we find, using variation in treatment intensity across voucher types and cities, that the relationship between neighborhood poverty rate and outcomes is approximately linear.
Keywords: neighborhood effects; housing vouchers; public housing; randomized experiment
JEL Codes: H43; I18; I38; J38
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| voucher offer (D16) | neighborhood quality (R23) |
| neighborhood quality (R23) | adult economic self-sufficiency (J12) |
| neighborhood quality (R23) | female youth education (I24) |
| neighborhood quality (R23) | female youth risky behavior (J13) |
| neighborhood quality (R23) | female youth physical health (I19) |
| neighborhood quality (R23) | male youth education (I24) |
| neighborhood quality (R23) | male youth risky behavior (I12) |
| neighborhood quality (R23) | male youth physical health (I19) |
| voucher offer (D16) | female youth outcomes (J13) |
| voucher offer (D16) | male youth outcomes (J13) |