The Effects of Eviction on Children

Robert Collinson, Deniz Dutz, John Humphries, Nicholas S. Mader, Daniel Tannenbaum and Winnie van Dijk

No 33659, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Eviction may be an important channel for the intergenerational transmission of poverty, and concerns about its effects on children are often raised as a rationale for tenant protection policies. We study how eviction impacts children’s home environment, school engagement, educational achievement, and high school completion. To do so, we assemble new datasets linking eviction court records in Chicago and New York to administrative public school records and restricted Census records. To disentangle the consequences of eviction from the effects of correlated sources of economic distress, we use a research design based on the random assignment of court cases to judges who vary in their leniency. We find that eviction increases children’s residential mobility, homelessness, and likelihood of moving in with grandparents or other adults. Eviction also disrupts school engagement, causing increased absences and school changes. Lastly, we find that eviction reduces high school course credits and high school graduation. We use a novel bounding method to show that the graduation finding is not driven by differential attrition. The disruptive effects of eviction are worse for boys. Our evidence suggests that the impact of eviction on children runs through the disruption to the home environment and school engagement rather than deterioration in school or neighborhood quality. These effects may be moderated by access to family support networks.

JEL-codes: H0 I24 I30 J0 K0 R0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-04
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Working Paper: The Effects of Eviction on Children (2025)
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