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Moving to Opportunity or Isolation? Network Effects of a Randomized Housing Lottery in Urban India

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  • Pande, Rohini
  • Field, Erica
  • Barnhardt, Sharon

Abstract

A housing lottery in an Indian city provided winning slum dwellers the opportunity to move into improved housing on the city?s periphery. Fourteen years later, relative to lottery losers, winners report improved housing farther from the city center, but no change in family income or human capital. Winners also report increased isolation from family and caste networks and lower access to informal insurance. We observe significant program exit: 34% of winners never moved into the subsidized housing and 32% eventually exited. Our results point to the importance of considering social networks when designing housing programs for the poor.

Suggested Citation

  • Pande, Rohini & Field, Erica & Barnhardt, Sharon, 2015. "Moving to Opportunity or Isolation? Network Effects of a Randomized Housing Lottery in Urban India," CEPR Discussion Papers 10746, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10746
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    And growth; And transportation economics; Economic development; Innovation; Mathematical and quantitative methods; Public economics; Real estate; Regional; Rural; Technological change;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • H42 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Private Goods
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • R21 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Housing Demand

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