The Effects of Housing and Neighborhood Conditions on Child Mortality

Brian A. Jacob, Jens Ludwig, Douglas L. Miller

NBER Working Paper No. 17369
Issued in August 2011
NBER Program(s):   CH   HE   PE

In this paper we estimate the causal effects on child mortality from moving into less distressed neighborhood environments. We match mortality data to information on every child in public housing that applied for a housing voucher in Chicago in 1997 (N=11,848). Families were randomly assigned to the voucher wait list, and only some families were offered vouchers. The odds ratio for the effects of being offered a housing voucher on overall mortality rates is equal to 1.11 for all children (95% CI 0.54 to 2.10), 1.50 for boys (95% CI 0.72 to 2.89) and 0.00 for girls – that is, the voucher offer is perfectly protective for mortality for girls (95% CI 0 to 0.79). Our paper also addresses a methodological issue that may arise in studies of low-probability outcomes – perfect prediction by key explanatory variables.

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Published: Jacob, Brian A. & Ludwig, Jens & Miller, Douglas L., 2013. "The effects of housing and neighborhood conditions on child mortality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 195-206.

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Acknowledgments

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