Job Market Paper
Job Market Paper
Funded by Weiss Fund for Research in Development Economics, University Research Priority Program Equality of Opportunity, Swiss Re Fund for Development Economics and Zurich GSE Director's Grant
Funded by Weiss Fund for Research in Development Economics, University Research Priority Program Equality of Opportunity, Swiss Re Fund for Development Economics and Zurich GSE Director's Grant
Abstract. Slum redevelopment policies are widely used to curb slum growth and regenerate urban neighbourhoods. I study the short and medium term effects of slum clearance and redevelopment on incumbent slum residents by building a novel residential mobility panel to track 250,000 residents over 15 years by digitising and matching electoral roll records. Exploiting variation in the year of redevelopment approvals across slums, I use a staggered difference-in-differences design to estimate the effects of redevelopment driven evictions on slum residents. Slum residents who are entitled to own an apartment in the redeveloped slum neighbourhood are permanently displaced from the neighbourhood with limited transitions out of slum living. The vast majority of displaced slum residents entitled to own an apartment in the redeveloped slum move to slum neighbourhoods elsewhere, resulting in negative non-local effects of slum redevelopments. I document substantial non-completion after slum clearance and large lags between slum clearance and completion of units for slum residents that reduce transitions out of slum living for incumbent residents. Residents who had no right to compensation move to other slums and take longer to transition out of slum living. My results suggest that that while slum redevelopments may have positive effects on the neighbourhood, these benefits may be undone by negative effects elsewhere.