@article{9147955db5c74a8dbff40a1bbba29db2,
title = "What are the social benefits of homeownership? Experimental evidence for low-income households",
abstract = "We estimate the social benefits of homeownership using an exogenous instrument based on randomly assigned treatment status from a field experiment that subsidized saving for home purchase for low-income renters through Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). This approach attempts to eliminate the potential correlation present in previous analyses between unobserved individual characteristics leading to homeownership and traits leading to provision of social capital or local amenities. Consistent with previous work, we show that homeownership positively affects political engagement in simple probits. Instrumental variable probits, however, show no impact of homeownership on political involvement. IV results for other social outcomes are less conclusive. The analysis suggests that with the use of an exogenous instrument, it is possible to generate results that are different from the previous literature. Our results also suggest that being eligible to open an IDA did not spur households to provide more social capital or local amenities.",
keywords = "Homeownership, Social benefits",
author = "Engelhardt, {Gary V.} and Eriksen, {Michael D.} and Gale, {William G.} and Mills, {Gregory B.}",
note = "Funding Information: We thank the Ford Foundation and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation for leadership in funding the experiment. The development and execution of the experiment was facilitated by current and former staff members at: Ford (Lisa Mensah, Kilolo Kijakazi), Mott (Benita Melton), the Center for Social Development at Washington University (Michael Sherraden, Lissa Johnson, Mark Schreiner, and Margaret Clancy), the Corporation for Enterprise Development (Robert Friedman, Brian Grossman, Ray Boshara, and Rene Bryce-Laporte), the Community Action Project of Tulsa County (including Steven Dow, Jennifer Robey, Kimberly Cowden, Virilyaih Davis, Danny Snow, and Rachel Trares), and Abt Associates (Donna DeMarco, Larry Orr, and Rhiannon Patterson). We thank Kate Baicker, Dan Black, Jeff Kling, Jeff Kubik, Austin Nichols, Karl Scholz, Will Strange, Jim Ziliak, three anonymous referees, and seminar participants at Syracuse University, University of Kentucky, Urban Institute, and the NBER for helpful comments. All errors and opinions are those of the authors and should not be taken to represent the views of any of the organizations with which they are affiliated. Copyright: Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",
year = "2010",
month = may,
doi = "10.1016/j.jue.2009.09.010",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "67",
pages = "249--258",
journal = "Journal of Urban Economics",
issn = "0094-1190",
publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",
number = "3",
}