Working Paper

Assessing the evidence on neighborhood effects from Moving to Opportunity


Abstract: This paper investigates the assumptions under which various parameters can be identified by the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) housing mobility experiment. Joint models of potential outcomes and selection into treatment are used to clarify the current interpretation of empirical evidence, distinguishing program effects from neighborhood effects. It is shown that MTO only identifi es a restricted subset of the neighborhood effects of interest, with empirical evidence presented that MTO does not identify effects from moving to high quality neighborhoods. One implication is that programs designed around measures other than poverty might have larger effects than MTO.

Keywords: Housing policy; Poverty;

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File(s): File format is text/html https://doi.org/10.26509/frbc-wp-201122r
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Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

Part of Series: Working Papers (Old Series)

Publication Date: 2012

Number: 1122R

Note: This paper has been substantially revised. For the new version see WP no. 1233.