IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cen/wpaper/22-35.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effect of Housing Assistance Program on Labor Supply and Family Formation

Author

Listed:
  • Ning Zhang

Abstract

This paper studies the effect of U.S. Housing Choice Voucher Program Section 8 on low-income people’ labor supply and family formation. I analyse this effect using data from the 2014 Panel and 2018 Panel of the restricted-use Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). My economic approach is to explore the policy which assigns housing vouchers based on an income cutoff as an instrument to study the effect of housing vouchers on low-income people’s employment and family formation. The assignment policy states that households with income lower than 50% of the median income for the MSA area are eligible for housing vouchers. With household eligibility status, I compare the households whose income is slightly below the income cutoff (eligible households) with the households whose income is slightly above the income cutoff (ineligible household) to identify the effect of housing vouchers on employment and family formation. I find that housing vouchers have a negative impact on individual labor supply through both extensive and intensive margins. In addition, housing vouchers also negatively impact family formation by decreasing marriage and increasing divorce rates. This project will contribute to understanding the effect of Section 8 Housing Vouchers on low-income households’ labor supply and family formation.

Suggested Citation

  • Ning Zhang, 2022. "The Effect of Housing Assistance Program on Labor Supply and Family Formation," Working Papers 22-35, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    • Handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:22-35
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2022/CES-WP-22-35.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2022
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marc K. Chan & Robert Moffitt, 2018. "Welfare Reform and the Labor Market," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 10(1), pages 347-381, August.
    2. Hamish Low & Costas Meghir & Luigi Pistaferri & Alessandra Voena, 2018. "Marriage, Labor Supply and the Dynamics of the Social Safety Net," NBER Working Papers 24356, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Brian A. Jacob & Jens Ludwig, 2012. "The Effects of Housing Assistance on Labor Supply: Evidence from a Voucher Lottery," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 272-304, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ning Zhang, 2022. "In-kind housing transfers and labor supply: a structural approach," Economics Series Working Papers 992, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    2. Pritadrajati, Dyah, 2023. "Does social assistance disincentivise employment, job formality, and mobility?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    3. Phillips, David C., 2017. "Landlords avoid tenants who pay with vouchers," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 48-52.
    4. Stewart, Kitty & Patrick, Ruth & Reeves, Aaron, 2023. "The sins of the parents: conceptualising adult-oriented reforms to family policy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121533, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Sharon Barnhardt & Erica Field & Rohini Pande, 2017. "Moving to Opportunity or Isolation? Network Effects of a Randomized Housing Lottery in Urban India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 1-32, January.
    6. Jeremy Greenwood & Nezih Guner & Karen A. Kopecky, 2019. "The Wife's Protector: A Quantitative Theory Linking Contraceptive Technology with the Decline in Marriage," Working Papers wp2019_1912, CEMFI.
    7. Manea, Roxana Elena & Piraino, Patrizio & Viarengo, Martina, 2023. "Crime, inequality and subsidized housing: Evidence from South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    8. Reyer Gerlagh & Veronica Lupi & Marzio Galeotti, 2023. "Fertility and climate change," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 125(1), pages 208-252, January.
    9. Sloczynski, Tymon, 2018. "A General Weighted Average Representation of the Ordinary and Two-Stage Least Squares Estimands," IZA Discussion Papers 11866, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Gulgun Bayaz Ozturk, 2018. "Anti‐Poverty Effects of In‐Kind Transfers Among Divorced or Separated Women in the United States," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(1), pages 57-80, March.
    11. Feinberg Robert M. & Kuehn Daniel, 2018. "Guaranteed Nonlabor Income and Labor Supply: The Effect of the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 18(3), pages 1-13, July.
    12. Robert A. Moffitt & Matthew V. Zahn, 2019. "The Marginal Labor Supply Disincentives of Welfare: Evidence from Administrative Barriers to Participation," NBER Working Papers 26028, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Kevin Corinth & Grace Finley, 2020. "The geography of unsheltered homelessness in the city: Evidence from “311” calls in New York," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 628-652, September.
    14. Bastani, Spencer & Moberg, Ylva & Selin, Håkan, 2016. "Estimating participation responses using transfer program reform," Working Paper Series, Center for Labor Studies 2016:4, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    15. Wu, Yuzhe & Luo, Jiaojiao & Peng, Yi, 2020. "An optimization-based framework for housing subsidy policy in China: Theory and practice of housing vouchers," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    16. Colas, Mark & Sachs, Dominik, 2022. "The Indirect Fiscal Benefits of Low-Skilled Immigration," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 352, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    17. Peters, Jörg & Langbein, Jörg & Roberts, Gareth, 2016. "Policy evaluation, randomized controlled trials, and external validity—A systematic review," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 51-54.
    18. Meri Davlasheridze & Qing Miao, 2021. "Natural disasters, public housing, and the role of disaster aid," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(5), pages 1113-1135, November.
    19. Anna Raute & Andrea Weber & Galina Zudenkova, 2022. "Can public policy increase paternity acknowledgment? Evidence from earnings-related parental leave," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 2206, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    20. Mette Ejrnæs & Esteban García-Miralles & Mette Gørtz & Petter Lundborg, 2023. "When death was postponed: the effect of hiv medication on work, savings and marriage," Working Papers 2317, Banco de España.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    housing vouchers; labor supply; marriage; divorce;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:22-35. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dawn Anderson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesgvus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.