Noémie Sportiche

Noémie Sportiche

Researcher, Mathematica

Dissertation Title: “Housing Markets and Health Outcomes”

A prominent theory holds that disparities in health are driven in part by segregation and by the resulting disparities in neighborhood conditions where people live. Yet, reversing segregation has been a major challenge for housing policy in the United States, in part due to highly restrictive land use laws that reduce the supply of affordable housing in the whiter, wealthier areas where opportunities for social mobility and health are concentrated. In Chapter 1, I examine whether Massachusetts Chapter 40B -- a desegregation-focused policy aimed at bypassing these exclusionary land use laws -- can serve as a mechanism for reversing disparities in neighborhood conditions. Chapter 2 then examines the potential for such desegregation-focused housing policies to improve health disparities by studying the effects of Chapter 40B on the health of pregnant mothers and their newborn infants. Finally, Chapter 3 documents the racially and economically heterogeneous impacts of housing price changes during the Great Recession on the mental health of older adults in the United States.

Chapter 1: Can Fair Share Policies Expand Neighborhood Choice? Evidence from Bypassing Exclusionary Zoning under Massachusetts Chapter 40B
Opening up neighborhoods that offer greater opportunities for social mobility to low-and moderate-income households remains a challenge in the United States. Exclusionary zoning practices act as a barrier to current efforts by restricting the supply of affordable housing. In this paper, we examine whether fair share policies which seek to bypass these restrictive zoning practices offer a potential solution. Focusing on Massachusetts Chapter 40B, we find clear evidence that such policies expand the types of neighborhoods currently available to low- and moderate-income households. Leveraging novel data on 40B development addresses linked to a wide range of public and administrative records, we find that 40B housing is located in neighborhoods with greater economic mobility, better schools, greater social capital, less pollution, better health outcomes, and lower incarceration rates than both the typical Massachusetts resident and to the beneficiaries of the state's Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, Housing Choice Voucher, and Public Housing programs. Consistent with previous research on policies that have segregated affordable housing and opportunity, we also find that 40B neighborhoods are substantially whiter and wealthier than both types of comparison areas. Differences between 40B neighborhoods and those with other program beneficiaries – which are on the order of 1 to 2 standard deviations – are striking large. An examination of underlying policy mechanisms suggests that 40B's ability to bypass exclusionary zoning plays a central role in explaining these differences in neighborhood conditions.

Chapter 2: Early-Life Health Impacts of Affordable Housing in Higher-Income Areas: Evidence from Massachusetts Chapter 40B
Desegregation-focused housing policies aimed at reducing disparities in neighborhood conditions may also reduce disparities in health outcomes. This paper examines the effects of one such policy on the health of pregnant people and their newborn infants. Specifically, I study the impact of Massachusetts Chapter 40B, a major civil rights-era housing policy that increases the supply of affordable ownership and rental housing in higher-income areas to facilitate moves for lower-income households to those areas. Using a difference-in-differences approach that compares the health outcomes of birthing parents who move to 40B housing to those of demographically-matched birthing parents who move from similar origin neighborhoods, I find that moving to 40B housing produces meaningful improvements in birth outcomes and some gains in birthing parents’ health only among 40B renters. I find no evidence of health effects among 40B owners. Among renters, improvements in birth outcomes are largest among Black beneficiaries, and are driven largely by people moving from neighborhoods with higher levels of poverty, more Black residents, and higher male incarceration rates. These results suggest that desegregation-focused housing policies like 40B could help improve racial and economic disparities in early-life health among certain populations.

Chapter 3: Economic Crises and Mental Health: Effects of the Great Recession on Older Americans

We examine the effect of the Great Recession of 2007-2009 on the mental health of older adults, using longitudinal Health and Retirement Study data linked to area-level data on house prices. We use a variety of measures to capture mental health and rely on the very large cross-sectional variation in falling house prices to identify the impact of the Great Recession on those outcomes. We also account for people who moved in response to falling prices by fixing each person’s location immediately prior to the house price collapse. Our central finding is that the Great Recession had heterogeneous effects on health. While mental health was not affected for the average older adult, mental health declined among homeowners with few financial assets, who were therefore more vulnerable to falling house prices. Importantly, health impacts in this group differed by race and ethnicity: depression and functional limitations worsened among Black and other non-white homeowners and medication use increased among white home- owners. There were no measurable impacts for Hispanic homeowners. These results highlight the importance of examining heterogeneity across multiple dimensions when examining the health impacts of economic conditions.

 

 

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