The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment

Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren and Lawrence Katz

American Economic Review, 2016, vol. 106, issue 4, 855-902

Abstract: The Moving to Opportunity (MTO) experiment offered randomly selected families housing vouchers to move from high-poverty housing projects to lower-poverty neighborhoods. We analyze MTO's impacts on children's long-term outcomes using tax data. We find that moving to a lower-poverty neighborhood when young (before age 13) increases college attendance and earnings and reduces single parenthood rates. Moving as an adolescent has slightly negative impacts, perhaps because of disruption effects. The decline in the gains from moving with the age when children move suggests that the duration of exposure to better environments during childhood is an important determinant of children’s long-term outcomes. (JEL I31, I38, J13, R23, R38)

JEL-codes: I31 I38 J13 R23 R38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.20150572
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (794)

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Working Paper: The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment (2016)
Working Paper: The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment (2015)
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