Predicting Labor-Force Participation Among Work-Able Public Housing Residents

Atticus Jaramillo, William M. Rohe and Michael D. Webb

Housing Policy Debate, 2021, vol. 31, issue 2, 274-289

Abstract: Critics of U.S. public housing often argue that the program discourages nonemployed residents from looking for work, yet little research has actually explored how public housing residents make decisions about whether to look for work. Thus, this article explores what factors distinguish nonemployed residents who are in the labor force (actively looking for work) from those who are out of the labor force (not actively looking for work). Relying on a sample of nonelderly, nondisabled public housing residents from Charlotte, North Carolina, we find that nonemployed residents who were older and showed signs of depression were more likely to be out of the labor force. In contrast, residents who were younger, had previously completed jobs training, or had some college education were more likely to be in the labor force. These findings suggest that health, education, and life-course stage may play an important role in determining nonemployed residents’ decision to look for work. Our conclusion discusses how these factors may influence labor-force participation and the relevance of our findings to housing policymakers and scholars.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/10511482.2020.1808041 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:houspd:v:31:y:2021:i:2:p:274-289

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RHPD20

DOI: 10.1080/10511482.2020.1808041

Access Statistics for this article

Housing Policy Debate is currently edited by Tom Sanchez, Susanne Viscarra and Derek Hyra

More articles in Housing Policy Debate from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().