Eviction and Poverty in American Cities
Robert Collinson,
John Humphries,
Nicholas Mader,
Davin Reed,
Daniel Tannenbaum and
Winnie van Dijk
No 2344, Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers from Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University
Abstract:
More than two million U.S. households have an eviction case led against them each year. Policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels are increasingly pursuing policies to reduce the number of evictions, citing harm to tenants and high public expenditures related to homelessness. We study the consequences of eviction for tenants using newly linked administrative data from two large cities. We document that prior to housing court, tenants experience declines in earnings and employment and increases in financial distress and hospital visits. These pre-trends are more pronounced for tenants who are evicted, which poses a challenge for disentangling correlation and causation. To address this problem, we use an instrumental variables approach based on cases randomly assigned to judges of varying leniency. We find that an eviction order increases homelessness, and reduces earnings, durable consumption, and access to credit. Eects on housing and labor market outcomes are driven by impacts for female and Black tenants.
Keywords: eviction; homelessness; poverty; tenant protections; rental housing markets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H00 I30 J01 R38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 67 pages
Date: 2022-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)
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https://cowles.yale.edu/sites/default/files/2022-11/d2344.pdf (application/pdf)
Related works:
Journal Article: Eviction and Poverty in American Cities* (2024)
Working Paper: Eviction and Poverty in American Cities (2023)
Working Paper: Eviction and Poverty in American Cities (2022)
Working Paper: Eviction and Poverty in American Cities (2022)
Working Paper: Eviction and Poverty in American Cities (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2344
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