Essays on the Economics of Anti-Poverty Programs.

Abstract

The U.S. federal government spent over $600 billion dollars in FY2013 on major programs designed to mitigate the effects of economic scarcity on low-income families and individuals. Understanding the impact of these programs, which vary significantly in the populations they target, the type of benefits they provide, and how those benefits are allocated, is of primary importance. This dissertation studies two areas of anti-poverty policy: health and housing. The first chapter uses a feature of a Medicaid expansion to measure that program’s effect on the high school graduation rates of low-income children in Chicago Public Schools. The second and third chapters examine the impact and take-up of a large housing subsidy distributed via lottery in Chicago in 1997.