Moving to Opportunity or Isolation? Network Effects of a Randomized Housing Lottery in Urban India

Sharon Barnhardt (), Erica Field and Rohini Pande

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2017, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-32

Abstract: A housing lottery in an Indian city provided winning slum dwellers the opportunity to move into improved housing on the city's periphery. Fourteen years later, winners report improved housing but no change in tenure security, family income, or human capital. Winners also report increased isolation from family and caste networks and reduced informal insurance. We observe significant program exit: 34 percent of winners never took up subsidized housing and 32 percent eventually exited. Our results suggest negligible long-run economic value of this expensive public program and point to the importance of considering social networks in housing programs for the poor.

JEL-codes: I38 O15 O18 R23 R31 R38 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
Note: DOI: 10.1257/app.20150397
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (32)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Moving to Opportunity or Isolation? Network Effects of a Randomized Housing Lottery in Urban India (2015)
Working Paper: Moving to Opportunity or Isolation? Network Effects of a Randomized Housing Lottery in Urban India (2015)
Working Paper: Moving to Opportunity or Isolation? Network Effects of a Randomized Housing Lottery in Urban India (2015)
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