Eric Chyn of University of Texas at Austin reviews “Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank” by Justene Hill Edwards. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Chronicles the history of the Freedman's Bank from the perspective of the freed people who invested in the bank as depositors and the experiences of the bank's administrators, detailing how Black depositors' experiences with the bank, and the federal government's unwillingness to hold the perpetrators of its demise accountable, represented an under-explored aspect of the White racial violence that characterized Black people's lives during the Reconstruction and during the Gilded Age.”

This paper studies housing vouchers and urban redevelopment programs by incorporating neighborhood effects into a general equilibrium overlapping-generations model with endogenous location choice and child development. We calibrate the model using US data and estimate impacts of large-scale implementations of rental voucher and place-based subsidy policies. Our core finding is that vouchers generate long-run welfare gains by reducing inequality and generating skill improvements that offset higher taxation and other GE effects. Although vouchers lead to larger welfare gains on average, we find housing supply. (JEL D63, H24, J13, J24, R23, R31, R38)

ABSTRACT This article studies the effects of the largest residential racial desegregation initiative in U.S. history, the Gautreaux Assisted Housing Program. From the late 1970s to the 1990s, Gautreaux moved thousands of Black families into predominantly white neighborhoods to support racial and economic integration. We link historical program records to administrative data and use plausibly exogenous variation in neighborhood placements to study how desegregating moves affect children in the long run. Being placed in the predominantly white neighborhoods targeted by the program significantly increases children’s future lifetime earnings and wealth. These moves also increase the likelihood of marriage and particularly raise the probability of being married to a white spouse. Moreover, placements through Gautreaux affect neighborhood choices in adulthood. Those placed in predominantly white neighborhoods during childhood live in more racially diverse areas with higher rates of upward mobility nearly 40 years later.

This article provides empirical researchers with an introduction and guide to research designs based on variation in judge and examiner tendencies to administer treatments or other interventions. We review the basic theory behind this research design, outline the assumptions under which the design identifies causal effects, describe empirical tests of the conditions for identification, and discuss trade-offs associated with choices researchers must make for estimation. We demonstrate concepts and best practices in an empirical case study that uses an examiner tendency research design to study the effects of pretrial detention. (JEL C21, C26, K14, K41)

We study a simple savings scheme that allows workers to defer receipt of part of their wages for three months at zero interest. The scheme significantly increases savings during the deferral period, leading to higher postdisbursement spending on lumpy goods. Two years later, after two additional rounds of the savings scheme, we find that treated workers have made permanent improvements to their homes. The popularity of the scheme implies a lack of good alternative savings options. The results of a follow-up experiment suggest that demand for the scheme is partly due to its ability to address self-control issues. (JEL D91, G51, J31, O12, O13)