Is public housing bad for children? The net effect of moving into public housing on children's academic outcomes is theoretically ambiguous and likely to depend on changes to neighborhood and school characteristics. Drawing on detailed individual‐level longitudinal data on New York City public school students, we exploit plausibly random variation in the precise timing of entry into public housing to estimate credibly causal effects of public housing residency on academic outcomes. Both difference‐in‐differences and event study analyses suggest positive effects of public housing on test scores, with larger effects after the initial year. Stalled academic performance at entry may reflect disruptive effects of residential and school mobility. Effects on test scores are larger among students who move from lower‐income neighborhoods due, perhaps, to increases in neighborhood and school quality. For some subgroups, attendance improves and the incidence of obesity declines. Our results contradict the popular belief that public housing is bad for kids.

中文翻译：

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公共住房项目到底对孩子有好处吗？


公共住房对孩子有害吗？搬入公共住房对儿童学业成绩的净影响在理论上是不明确的，并且可能取决于社区和学校特征的变化。根据纽约市公立学校学生详细的个人层面纵向数据，我们利用进入公共住房的精确时间的看似随机的变化来估计公共住房居住对学业成绩的可信因果影响。双重差分和事件研究分析都表明，公共住房对考试成绩有积极影响，并且在第一年之后影响更大。入学时学业成绩停滞可能反映出住宿和学校流动性的破坏性影响。对于来自低收入社区的学生来说，考试成绩的影响更大，这可能是由于社区和学校质量的提高。对于某些亚组，出勤率有所提高，肥胖发生率有所下降。我们的结果与公共住房对孩子有害的普遍看法相矛盾。