Housing Benefits and Labor Decisions: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design
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2024-07-08
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en
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How do labor decisions change in response to receiving housing benefits? This thesis examines
the impact of housing benefit receipt on household earnings, employment, and work-related
relocation using Dutch housing survey data within a fuzzy regression discontinuity design. This
method effectively mitigates selection bias from self-enrolment into welfare programs. The
results provide limited evidence that single-person households reduce their labor supply when
receiving housing benefits. However, no significant effects on employment probability or
mobility outcomes are found. The analysis also reveals considerable treatment effect
heterogeneity across demographic subgroups. For multi-person households, no causal effect
could be identified due to a lack of housing benefit uptake amongst eligible recipients. These
findings alleviate concerns about housing assistance policies significantly disincentivizing
employment.
Lars Adriaanse
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen