IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/juecon/v111y2019icp35-52.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

There Is No Free House

Author

Listed:
  • Picarelli, Nathalie

Abstract

This paper estimates the effect of a housing relocation program on the labor supply and living conditions of low-income households across major cities in South Africa. Using panel microdata collected between 2008 and 2014, it exploits the arbitrary eligibility rules of the policy with a fuzzy regression discontinuity design to obtain reduced form estimates. There are three main findings. First, in the short-term of 2 to 4 years following relocation, the labor supply of recipient households decreases, driven mostly by a reduction of female hours. Second, the large increase in distance (km) to economic opportunities seems to be an important factor behind the decline, directly or indirectly through family shifts in earning strategies. Finally, evidence is limited regarding improvements in housing and neighborhood quality. Overall, there is no clear indication that the net welfare effect of relocation is positive.

Suggested Citation

  • Picarelli, Nathalie, 2019. "There Is No Free House," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 35-52.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:juecon:v:111:y:2019:i:c:p:35-52
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2019.04.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119019300245
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jue.2019.04.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abhijit Banerjee & Sebastian Galiani & Jim Levinsohn & Zoë McLaren & Ingrid Woolard, 2008. "Why has unemployment risen in the New South Africa?1," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 16(4), pages 715-740, October.
    2. Alan I. Barreca & Jason M. Lindo & Glen R. Waddell, 2016. "Heaping-Induced Bias In Regression-Discontinuity Designs," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(1), pages 268-293, January.
    3. Victoria Hosegood & Anne Case & Cally Ardington, 2009. "Labor Supply Responses to Large Social Transfers: Longitudinal Evidence from South Africa," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 22-48, January.
    4. Erica Field & Matthew Levinson & Rohini Pande & Sujata Visaria, 2008. "Segregation, Rent Control, and Riots: The Economics of Religious Conflict in an Indian City," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 505-510, May.
    5. Brueckner, Jan K. & Thisse, Jacques-Francois & Zenou, Yves, 1999. "Why is central Paris rich and downtown Detroit poor?: An amenity-based theory," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 91-107, January.
    6. Galiani, Sebastián & Gertler, Paul J. & Undurraga, Raimundo & Cooper, Ryan & Martínez, Sebastián & Ross, Adam, 2017. "Shelter from the storm: Upgrading housing infrastructure in Latin American slums," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 187-213.
    7. Jan K. Brueckner & Stuart S. Rosenthal, 2009. "Gentrification and Neighborhood Housing Cycles: Will America's Future Downtowns Be Rich?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 91(4), pages 725-743, November.
    8. Jeffrey R Kling & Jeffrey B Liebman & Lawrence F Katz, 2007. "Experimental Analysis of Neighborhood Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(1), pages 83-119, January.
    9. Takeuchi, Akie & Cropper, Maureen & Bento, Antonio, 2008. "Measuring the welfare effects of slum improvement programs: The case of Mumbai," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 65-84, July.
    10. Laurent Gobillon & Thierry Magnac & Harris Selod, 2011. "The effect of location on finding a job in the Paris region," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(7), pages 1079-1112, November.
    11. Andrew Gelman & Guido Imbens, 2019. "Why High-Order Polynomials Should Not Be Used in Regression Discontinuity Designs," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 447-456, July.
    12. Jeremy R. Magruder, 2010. "Intergenerational Networks, Unemployment, and Persistent Inequality in South Africa," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(1), pages 62-85, January.
    13. Lall, Somik V. & Lundberg, Mattias K.A. & Shalizi, Zmarak, 2008. "Implications of alternate policies on welfare of slum dwellers: Evidence from Pune, India," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 56-73, January.
    14. Galiani, Sebastian & Schargrodsky, Ernesto, 2010. "Property rights for the poor: Effects of land titling," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(9-10), pages 700-729, October.
    15. Jan K. Brueckner & Yves Zenou, 2003. "Space and Unemployment: The Labor-Market Effects of Spatial Mismatch," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(1), pages 242-262, January.
    16. Hahn, Jinyong & Todd, Petra & Van der Klaauw, Wilbert, 2001. "Identification and Estimation of Treatment Effects with a Regression-Discontinuity Design," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(1), pages 201-209, January.
    17. Stuart S. Rosenthal, 2014. "Are Private Markets and Filtering a Viable Source of Low-Income Housing? Estimates from a "Repeat Income" Model," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(2), pages 687-706, February.
    18. Guido Imbens & Karthik Kalyanaraman, 2012. "Optimal Bandwidth Choice for the Regression Discontinuity Estimator," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 79(3), pages 933-959.
    19. 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.
    20. 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.
    21. Albouy, David & Lue, Bert, 2015. "Driving to opportunity: Local rents, wages, commuting, and sub-metropolitan quality of life," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 74-92.
    22. Kingdon, Geeta & Knight, John, 2006. "The measurement of unemployment when unemployment is high," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 291-315, June.
    23. Zenou,Yves, 2009. "Urban Labor Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521698221.
    24. David S. Lee & Thomas Lemieux, 2010. "Regression Discontinuity Designs in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(2), pages 281-355, June.
    25. Venables, Anthony J., 2017. "Breaking into tradables: Urban form and urban function in a developing city," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 88-97.
    26. Simon Franklin, 2015. "Location, search costs and youth unemployment: A randomized trial of transport subsidies in Ethiopia," CSAE Working Paper Series 2015-11, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    27. Erica Field, 2007. "Entitled to Work: Urban Property Rights and Labor Supply in Peru," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(4), pages 1561-1602.
    28. Baker, Judy & Basu, Rakhi & Cropper, Maureen & Lall, Somik & Takeuchi, Akie, 2005. "Urban poverty and transport : the case of Mumbai," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3693, The World Bank.
    29. Andrew Kerr, 2015. "Tax(i)ing the poor? Commuting costs in South Africa," SALDRU Working Papers 156, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    30. Glaeser, Edward L. & Kahn, Matthew E. & Rappaport, Jordan, 2008. "Why do the poor live in cities The role of public transportation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 1-24, January.
    31. Lall, Somik V. & Brink, Rogier van den & Dasgupta, Basab & Leresche, Kay Muir, 2012. "Shelter from the storm -- but disconnected from jobs : lessons from urban South Africa on the importance of coordinating housing and transport policies," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6173, The World Bank.
    32. McCrary, Justin, 2008. "Manipulation of the running variable in the regression discontinuity design: A density test," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 698-714, February.
    33. Moffitt, Robert A., 2002. "Welfare programs and labor supply," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 34, pages 2393-2430, Elsevier.
    34. Brian A. Jacob, 2003. "Public Housing, Housing Vouchers and Student Achievement: Evidence from Public Housing Demolitions in Chicago," NBER Working Papers 9652, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    35. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren & Lawrence F. Katz, 2016. "The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(4), pages 855-902, April.
    36. LeRoy, Stephen F. & Sonstelie, Jon, 1983. "Paradise lost and regained: Transportation innovation, income, and residential location," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 67-89, January.
    37. John F. Kain, 1968. "Housing Segregation, Negro Employment, and Metropolitan Decentralization," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 82(2), pages 175-197.
    38. Avner,Paolo & Lall,Somik V., 2016. "Matchmaking in Nairobi : the role of land use," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7904, The World Bank.
    39. Jennifer Day & Robert Cervero, 2010. "Effects of Residential Relocation on Household and Commuting Expenditures in Shanghai, China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 762-788, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Franklin, Simon, 2020. "Enabled to work: The impact of government housing on slum dwellers in South Africa," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    2. Zhou, Zhengyi, 2022. "The effects of state-led relocation on labor market participation: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    3. Kumar, Tanu, 2021. "The housing quality, income, and human capital effects of subsidized homes in urban India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    4. Adriana Camacho-González & Jorge Enrique Caputo-Leyva & Fabio Sánchez-Torres, 2022. ""Un nuevo comienzo": El impacto del Programa Vivienda Gratuita sobre la calidad de vida de los hogares beneficiarios," Documentos CEDE 20077, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    5. Manea, Roxana Elena & Piraino, Patrizio & Viarengo, Martina, 2023. "Crime, inequality and subsidized housing: Evidence from South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    6. Posada, H. M. & García, A. F. & Londoño, D, 2022. "The external effects of public housing developments on informal housing: The case of Medellín, Colombia," Documentos de Trabajo 20416, Universidad del Rosario.
    7. Augustinas Maceika & Andrej Bugajev & Olga R. Šostak, 2019. "The Modelling of Roof Installation Projects Using Decision Trees and the AHP Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-21, December.
    8. Bradlow, Benjamin H. & Polloni, Stefano & Violette, William, 2023. "Public housing spillovers: Evidence from South Africa," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).

    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. Laura Jaitman, 2015. "Urban infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean: public policy priorities," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 24(1), pages 1-57, December.
    2. 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.
    3. Franklin, Simon, 2020. "Enabled to work: The impact of government housing on slum dwellers in South Africa," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    4. Baum-Snow, Nathaniel & Ferreira, Fernando, 2015. "Causal Inference in Urban and Regional Economics," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 3-68, Elsevier.
    5. Li, Han & Li, Jiangyi & Lu, Yi & Xie, Huihua, 2020. "Housing wealth and labor supply: Evidence from a regression discontinuity design," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    6. Mauricio Villamizar‐Villegas & Freddy A. Pinzon‐Puerto & Maria Alejandra Ruiz‐Sanchez, 2022. "A comprehensive history of regression discontinuity designs: An empirical survey of the last 60 years," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 1130-1178, September.
    7. Galiani, Sebastián & Gertler, Paul J. & Undurraga, Raimundo & Cooper, Ryan & Martínez, Sebastián & Ross, Adam, 2017. "Shelter from the storm: Upgrading housing infrastructure in Latin American slums," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 187-213.
    8. Matteo Picchio & Jan C. van Ours, 2020. "Mental Health Effects of Retirement," De Economist, Springer, vol. 168(3), pages 419-452, September.
    9. Andre Luis Squarize Chagas & Guilherme Malvezzi Rocha, 2019. "Housing program and social conditions impact: Evidences from Minha Casa Minha Vida program lotteries in Brazil," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2019_40, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP), revised 05 Nov 2019.
    10. Waights, Sevrin, 2018. "Does gentrification displace poor households? An ‘identification-via-interaction’ approach," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 88691, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Nian, Yongwei, 2023. "Incentives, penalties, and rural air pollution: Evidence from satellite data," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    12. Matias D. Cattaneo & Rocío Titiunik, 2022. "Regression Discontinuity Designs," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 821-851, August.
    13. Duranton, Gilles & Puga, Diego, 2015. "Urban Land Use," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 467-560, Elsevier.
    14. Boje-Kovacs, Bence & Egsgaard-Pedersen, Aske & Weatherall, Cecilie D., 2021. "Residential mobility and persistent neighborhood deprivation," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    15. Atay, Salim & Asik, Gunes A. & Tumen, Semih, 2023. "Impact of Graduating with Honors on Entry Wages of Economics Majors," IZA Discussion Papers 16080, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Quaresima Federico & Santolini Raffaella & Fiorillo Fabio, 2020. "Political affiliation in post-parliamentary careers in Italian public enterprises," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 21(1), pages 35-64, April.
    17. Prakash, Nishith & Rockmore, Marc & Uppal, Yogesh, 2019. "Do criminally accused politicians affect economic outcomes? Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    18. Pastore, Chiara & Jones, Andrew M., 2023. "Human capital consequences of missing out on a grammar school education," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    19. Manea, Roxana Elena & Piraino, Patrizio & Viarengo, Martina, 2023. "Crime, inequality and subsidized housing: Evidence from South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    20. Matthew Collin & Justin Sandefur & Andrew Zeitlin, 2015. "Falling Off the Map: The Impact of Formalizing (Some) Informal Settlements in Tanzania," CSAE Working Paper Series 2015-09, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Low-cost housing; Labor supply; Housing conditions; Urban areas; South Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R2 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis
    • O21 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Planning Models; Planning Policy
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy

    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:eee:juecon:v:111:y:2019:i:c:p:35-52. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622905 .

    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.