Public Housing, Housing Vouchers, and Student Achievement: Evidence from Public Housing Demolitions in Chicago

Brian A Jacob
2004 The American Economic Review  
This paper utilizes a plausibly exogenous source of variation in housing assistance generated by public housing demolitions in Chicago to examine the impact of high-rise public housing on student outcomes. I find that children in households affected by the demolitions do no better or worse than their peers on a wide variety of achievement measures. Because the majority of households that leave high-rise public housing in response to the demolitions move to neighborhoods and schools that closely
more » ... resemble those they left, the zero effect of the demolitions may be interpreted as the independent impact of public housing.
doi:10.1257/000282804322970788 fatcat:776d6nulcrbenlcgvqo7fr7yzq