Econometrics & Applied Economics Seminar - Nina Guyon (National University of Singapore)

Econometrics Seminar Series

Room 605, Level 6, FBE Building, 111 Barry Street, Carlton

Map

Title: New Peers From The Ghetto: Trickle-Down Effects of Public Housing Demolitions On Good Schools

Abstract: Are peers from the ghetto always bad? I make use of the demolitions of 85 000 public housing units in French housing projects to study the effect of relocated children on their new peers. I employ an event study design based on the timing of demolitions and exhaustive administrative panel data that allow to follow students from 5th grade to the end of high school. I find that incumbent students in schools above the median had increased exposure to peers from the projects. I study the effect of this increased exposure on the type of end of high school diploma that students receive: academic or professional. Incumbent boys reacted differently depending on their social background, with small negative effects for low social background boys and positive effects for high social background boys. If anything, the effects on girls are rather positive.