Concrete measures: the rise of public housing and changes in young single motherhood in the U.S.
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Abstract
Between 1950 and 1970, the number of public housing units in the United States grew nearly sixfold, and the percentage of births to unmarried women almost tripled. We provide the first estimates of the effect of public housing on single motherhood, using individual-level data to assess whether young women living near higher concentrations of public housing were more likely to have children out of wedlock. We find a strong and positive relationship between public housing and single motherhood for black high school dropouts. This link is larger when we use lagged measures of public housing, which suggests that exposure during childhood may be driving the result.
Keywords
Public housing Single motherhood Fertility MarriageJEL classification
I38 J13 N32Notes
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the editor and anonymous referees of this journal for very helpful comments and suggestions. We also thank William J. Collins, Timothy Diette, Price Fishback, Art Goldsmith, Joseph Guse, Greg Hartman, Ed Olsen, Nick Sanders, and participants from Washington & Lee University, Virginia Military Institute, The College of William & Mary, and the Virginia Association of Economists and Southern Economic Association annual meetings. Carolyn Moehling graciously provided ADC/AFDC data. Lilly Grella, Margaret Hambleton, John Juneau II, Margaret Kallus, Charlotte Karp, Grant Przybyla, and Amanda Wahlers provided excellent research assistance.
Compliance with ethical standards
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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