Housing Subsidies, Labor Supply and Household Welfare. Experimental Evidence from Argentina
Abstract
We study the impact of a social housing policy program implemented in Argentina, exploiting the random assignment rule to identify the policy's causal effect on labor market and other socio-economic outcomes. In particular, this paper evaluates an intervention that combines access to quality housing at a heavily subsidized cost, the granting of property rights, and relocation in a suburb of Rosario, Argentina's third largest city. In a preliminary analysis, based on administrative social security records, we find that the policy generates a reduction in registered employment by more than 7 percentage points, especially for women and beneficiaries over 50 years of age. We went further and conducted a purposely-designed household survey among a sample of beneficiaries in order to understand the underlying mechanisms and welfare implications of these results. All in all, our analysis points to the existence of an income effect and confirms the registered fall in formal employment and labor force participation. We do not find an increase in informalization, although beneficiaries' perceived access to local job opportunities are signicantly reduced.
Country / Region
Date
2016-10Cite this publication
Belongs to collection
Author
Alzúa, María LauraAmendolaggine, Julián
Cruces, Guillermo
Greppi, Catrihel
Items Relacionados
Starting on the right track? The effects of rst job experience on short and long term labor market outcomes
For young job seekers barriers to labor market entry are high, especially in developing countries were information frictions are large. Can first job ...
Local externalities in labor markets: congestion and information flow among peers
We explore local externalities in labor markets, exploiting the random assignment of a large-scale internship program in Argentina. Examining the ...
A Taxonomy of Colombia’s Informal Labor Market
A taxonomy of the informal labor market is extremely important to understand and handle informality, particularly in a country as Colombia where this ...