Neighborhood Effects on Crime for Female and Male Youth: Evidence from a Randomized Housing Voucher Experiment

Jeffrey Kling, Jens Ludwig and Lawrence Katz

No 10777, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The Moving to Opportunity (MTO) demonstration assigned housing vouchers via random lottery to public housing residents in five cities. We use the exogenous variation in residential locations generated by MTO to estimate neighborhood effects on youth crime and delinquency. The offer to relocate to lower-poverty areas reduces arrests among female youth for violent and property crimes, relative to a control group. For males the offer to relocate reduces arrests for violent crime, at least in the short run, but increases problem behaviors and property crime arrests. The gender difference in treatment effects seems to reflect differences in how male and female youths from disadvantaged backgrounds adapt and respond to similar new neighborhood environments.

JEL-codes: H43 I18 J23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-ure
Note: PE CH
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Published as Revised and published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics 120:1 (February 2005), 87-130.

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Journal Article: Neighborhood Effects on Crime for Female and Male Youth: Evidence from a Randomized Housing Voucher Experiment (2005)
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