Creating Moves to Opportunity: Experimental Evidence on Barriers to Neighborhood Choice

Peter Bergman, Raj Chetty, Stefanie DeLuca, Nathaniel Hendren, Lawrence Katz and Christopher Palmer

American Economic Review, 2024, vol. 114, issue 5, 1281-1337

Abstract: Low-income families often live in low-upward-mobility neighborhoods. We study why by using a randomized trial with housing voucher recipients that provided information, financial support, and customized search assistance to move to high-opportunity neighborhoods. The treatment increased the fraction moving to high-upward-mobility areas from 15 to 53 percent. A second trial reveals this treatment effect is driven primarily by customized search assistance. Qualitative interviews show that the intervention relaxed bandwidth constraints and addressed family-specific needs. Our findings imply many low-income families do not have strong preferences to stay in low-opportunity areas and that barriers in housing search significantly increase residential segregation by income.

JEL-codes: D83 G51 R21 R23 R31 R38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Working Paper: Creating Moves to Opportunity: Experimental Evidence on Barriers to Neighborhood Choice (2019)
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DOI: 10.1257/aer.20200407

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