Working Paper: NBER ID: w21419
Authors: Sharon Barnhardt; Erica Field; Rohini Pande
Abstract: A housing lottery in an Indian city provided winning slum dwellers the opportunity to move into improved housing on the city’s periphery. Fourteen years later, relative to lottery losers, winners report improved housing farther from the city center, but no change in family income or human capital. Winners also report increased isolation from family and caste networks and lower access to informal insurance. We observe significant program exit: 34% of winners never moved into the subsidized housing and 32% eventually exited. Our results point to the importance of considering social networks when designing housing programs for the poor.
Keywords: Housing Lottery; Urban India; Social Networks; Slum Dwellers; Public Housing
JEL Codes: C93; H42; O12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Winning the lottery (H27) | Relocating to improved housing (R21) |
| Relocating to improved housing (R21) | Changes in family income (D19) |
| Relocating to improved housing (R21) | Changes in human capital (J24) |
| Winning the lottery (H27) | Economic well-being (I31) |
| Winning the lottery (H27) | Increased isolation from social networks (Z13) |
| Increased isolation from social networks (Z13) | Access to informal insurance mechanisms (G52) |
| Relocating to improved housing (R21) | Weakened social ties (Z13) |
| Weakened social ties (Z13) | Economic stability of slum dwellers (O17) |