← Search

American Economic Review Vol. 103 No. 3 2013

Long-Term Neighborhood Effects on Low-Income Families: Evidence from Moving to Opportunity

Jens Ludwig1; Greg J. Duncan2; Lisa A. Gennetian3; Lawrence F. Katz4; Ronald C. Kessler5; Jeffrey R. Kling6; Lisa Sanbonmatsu7

1 University of Chicago, 1155 East 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637 and NBER. · 2 School of Education, University of California, Irvine, 2056 Education Building, Irvine, CA 92697. · 3 Institute of Human Development and Social Change, New York University, 246 Greene St., Floor 6E, New York, NY 10003 and NBER. · 4 Department of Economics, Harvard University, Cambridge MA 02138, and NBER. · 5 Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, 180 Longwood Ave., Boston, MA 02115. · 6 Congressional Budget Office, 2nd and D Streets, SW, Washington, DC 20515, and NBER. · 7 NBER, 1050 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA, 02138.

open access

Abstract

We examine long-term neighborhood effects on low-income families using data from the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) randomized housing-mobility experiment. This experiment offered to some public-housing families but not to others the chance to move to less-disadvantaged neighborhoods. We show that ten to 15 years after baseline, MTO: (i) improves adult physical and mental health; (ii) has no detectable effect on economic outcomes or youth schooling or physical health; and (iii) has mixed results by gender on other youth outcomes, with girls doing better on some measures and boys doing worse. Despite the somewhat mixed pattern of impacts on traditional behavioral outcomes, MTO moves substantially improve adult subjective well-being.

DOI
10.1257/aer.103.3.226
Volume
103
Issue
3
Pages
226-231
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref openalex

Cite