Search Results
Working Paper
Household Mortgage Refinancing Decisions Are Neighbor Influenced
Can social influence effects help explain regional heterogeneity in refinancing activity? Neighborhood social influence effects have been shown to affect publicly observable decisions, but their role in private decisions, like refinancing, remains unclear. Using precisely geolocated data and a nearest-neighbor research design, we find that households are 7% more likely to refinance if a neighbor within 50 meters has recently refinanced. Consistent with a word-of-mouth mechanism, social influence effects are weaker when neighbors are farther away and non existent for non-occupants. Our results ...
Working Paper
Parental Proximity and Earnings after Job Displacements
Young adults, ages 25 to 35, who live in the same neighborhoods as their parents experience stronger earnings recoveries after a job displacement than those who live farther away. This result is driven by smaller on-impact wage reductions and sharper recoveries in both hours and wages. We show that geographic mobility, different job search durations, housing transfers, and ex-ante differences between individuals are unlikely explanations. Our findings are consistent with a framework in which some individuals living near their parents face a better wage-offer distribution, though we find no ...
Journal Article
Neighborhood Types and Demographics
U.S. neighborhoods can be organized into five types, which have very different demographics and geographical locations.
Report
Housing demand and community choice: an empirical analysis
Housing demand reflects the household's simultaneous choice of neighborhood, whether to own or rent the dwelling, and the quantity of housing services demanded. Existing literature emphasizes the final two factors, but overlooks the choice of community. This paper develops an econometric model that incorporates all three components, and then estimates this model using a sample of households in Tampa, Florida. Incorporating community choice increases the price elasticity of demand and reduces the differential between white and comparable nonwhite households. The results are robust to the ...
Periodic Essay
Reflections: Place Matters
Today, I would like to share some reflections on place and why it matters when working toward expanding economic opportunity and inclusion. A body of research has shown that economic opportunity is tied not only to individual circumstances but also to place. Upward mobility – the probability that a child will be better off economically than his or her parents – is dependent not only on the family’s characteristics but also on neighborhood characteristics such as neighborhood income, the quality of schools, access to social services, and racial integration.
Speech
Perseverance and Partnership Produce Progress in Community Development, a speech at the 2023 Policy Summit: Communities Thriving in a Changing Economy
The discussions over the last two days have focused on many of the challenges that face our communities, both long-standing ones and new ones that reflect our changing economy. There are still significant impediments limiting those in low- and moderate-income households and communities from fully benefiting from a strong economy. Not everyone has access to affordable education, transportation, broadband, housing, credit, and other financial services, which are the foundational elements that allow people to achieve the American dream and secure a better living standard for their children. I ...
Journal Article
Addressing Displacement Pressures from Public Investment in Chicago’s Communities
This article profiles recent research from the Institute for Housing Studies (IHS or the Institute)1 on the topic of displacement, gentrification, and the role of public investment in driving neighborhood change. It discusses a specific public investment in Chicago and its role in accelerating gentrification, and highlights a new data tool created by IHS to help community development practitioners develop affordable housing strategies in advance of planned public investments.
Working Paper
The Long-Run Effects of Neighborhood Change on Incumbent Families
A number of prominent studies examine the long-run effects of neighborhood attributes on children by leveraging variation in neighborhood exposure through household moves. However, much neighborhood change comes in place rather than through moving. Using an urban economic geography model as a basis, this paper estimates the causal effects of changes in neighborhood attributes on long-run outcomes for incumbent children and households. For identification, we make use of quasi-random variation in 1990-2000 and 2000-2005 skill specific labor demand shocks hitting each residential metro area ...
Speech
Community Development: What Does it Take to Create an Economy that Works for All?
Remarks at Capital Quest: Connecting Capital to Communities (delivered via videoconference).
Working Paper
The Bronx is Burning: Urban Disinvestment Effects of the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements
In response to private insurers’ postwar withdrawal from urban neighborhoods, roughly half of U.S. states developed programs in the late 1960s that offered residual property insurance to property owners denied in the private market. These plans, known as Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) plans after 1968, inadvertently encouraged moral hazard through underwriting restrictions, risk pooling, and generous payouts. We use a triple-difference design to estimate FAIR’s impact, comparing: (1) pre- and post-FAIR participation periods, (2) neighborhoods likely offered FAIR plans versus ...