Enabled to work: The impact of government housing on slum dwellers in South Africa

Simon Franklin

Journal of Urban Economics, 2020, vol. 118, issue C

Abstract: Do informal housing conditions constrain labour supply? I estimate the effect of receiving a free house under the South African government’s housing program, which has given away over 3 million housing units since 1994. Using four waves of household panel data from Cape Town and geographical data on the location of large housing projects, I exploit a natural experiment whereby households living close to projects were first in line to get them to instrument for selection into the programme. I use projects that were planned and approved, but never actually built, to deal with non-random placement of housing projects. Government housing has a significant positive effect on household earnings. This is driven primarily by increases in earnings for women. I present evidence consistent with a mechanism whereby formal housing frees up time by alleviating the demands of work in the home.

Keywords: Housing; Informal settlements; Labor supply; Domestic labor; South Africa; Government housing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Enabled to Work: The Impact of Government Housing on Slum Dwellers in South Africa (2016)
Working Paper: Enabled to work: the impact of government housing on slum dwellers in South Africa (2016)
Working Paper: Enabled to Work: The Impact of Government Housing on Slum Dwellers in South Africa (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:juecon:v:118:y:2020:i:c:s009411902030036x

DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2020.103265

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