Neighborhood Effects, Housing Mobility, and Place-Based Policies

For decades, Harvard professor Lawrence Katz has worked with federal and local housing agencies to learn how public housing policy might more effectively support economic opportunity. This lecture will cover his work on three landmark projects: Moving to Opportunity, enabling residents of public housing to move to lower-poverty neighborhoods; Creating Moves to Opportunity, providing additional support to families considering leaving high-poverty neighborhoods; and HOPE VI revitalization grants, investing in mixed-income developments in neighborhoods with distressed public housing. Professor Katz’s pathbreaking work on these projects demonstrates how collaborations between researchers and government agencies can improve the delivery of important public goods and services.