Full Citation

Title: The Incidence of Housing Voucher Generosity

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2014

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI:

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: What is the incidence of housing vouchers? Housing voucher recipients in the US typi- cally pay their landlord a fixed amount based on their income and the government pays the rest of the rent, up to a rent ceiling. We consider a policy that raises the generosity of the rent ceiling everywhere, which is equivalent to an income effect, and a policy which links generosity to local unit quality, which is equivalent to a substitution effect. Using data on the universe of housing vouchers and quasi-experimental variation from HUD policy changes, we analyze the incidence of these policies. Raising the generosity of the rent ceiling everywhere appears to primarily benefit landlords, who receive higher rents with very little evidence of medium-run quality improvements. Setting ZIP code-level rent ceilings causes rent increases in expensive neighborhoods and decreases in low-cost neighborhoods, with little change in aggregate rents. The ZIP code policy improves neighborhood quality as much as other, far more costly, voucher interventions.

Url: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/ganong/files/collinsonganong105.pdf

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Collinson, Robert; Ganong, Peter

Publisher: Harvard University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Housing and Segregation

Countries: United States