UMN Sociology Workshop Series: The Long-Run Effects of Early-Life Exposure to the US Public Housing Program

Speaker Bio:

Andy Fenelon is an Associate Professor in Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and the Associate Director of the Minnesota Population Center. He is a sociologist and demographer interested in social policy and health. Specifically, he studies the effects of housing policy on life course health and well-being using linked data. Prior to coming to UMN, he held faculty positions at Penn State and the University of Maryland.

Abstract:

Despite decades of disinvestment, the American public housing program of the 1930s stands out as a well-funded and managed program that provided high-quality housing at an affordable price. We study the long-term effects of this public housing program on subsequent educational attainment, midlife earnings, and individual mortality over 80 years of follow-up. We developed a unique dataset of all children living in public housing in the 1940 census and linked these individuals to the 2000 census, IRS 1040 tax records, and Social Security death records. We compared public housing residents to neighbors living in bordering census enumeration districts, matched exactly on admission criteria for public housing at the time. We found that children living in public housing in 1940 eventually obtained 0.5 more years of education in adulthood and are considerably more likely to go on to complete high school. Tax records indicate that public housing residents earned about 2-7% higher wage and salary income in midlife than their comparators, equivalent to $150,000 more salary income across midlife. Finally, public housing residents lived 0.66 years longer than neighbors, potentially driven in part by socioeconomic mobility earlier in life. Stratified models indicate that Black public housing residents experienced larger educational, earnings, and longevity benefits than White residents. These results provide the first empirical evidence that early American public housing—a well-funded program providing high-quality housing—promoted educational achievement, raised incomes, and improved survival outcomes throughout the life course.