Thesis: Ph. D. in Public Policy and Urban Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, February, 2021
Cataloged from the official PDF of thesis. Thesis contains 3 articles.
Includes bibliographical references.
While research has demonstrated that low-poverty neighborhoods can improve economic outcomes for low-income children, policymakers have few scalable solutions to help families access those areas. In this dissertation, I present three innovations in policy and politics aimed at improving access to opportunity neighborhoods. First, with Ingrid Gould Ellen, I argue for a streamlined measure of neighborhood opportunity we call the School-Violence-Poverty (SVP) Index based on the three metrics that are most strongly associated with positive outcomes among children. We combine it with data on rental prices in New York City and Greater Boston to identify "opportunity bargain" areas that have lower rents than expected given their high ratings on measures of school quality, low levels of violent crime, and low poverty rates. We find that rents capitalize a wide assortment of amenities unrelated to opportunity, such as access to restaurants, while in some cases undervaluing opportunity neighborhoods. Second, I evaluate the impact of three policy changes on increasing access to opportunity: rental subsidies set at the ZIP Code level, a randomized controlled trial of a housing mobility counseling program, and a randomized controlled trial of a housing search tool that provides customized neighborhood recommendations based on public transit access, school quality and public safety preferences. I find that rental subsidy changes were associated with higher numbers of moves to areas with better schools, as well as the percentage of families moving to areas with high performing schools and low rates of violent crime and poverty. I also find the housing mobility counseling program increased access to areas with lower violent crime rates, and the housing search tool helped those in the treatment group already interested in moving to high-opportunity areas move to significantly higher opportunity neighborhoods. Third, I ask: how do city agencies implement regional policies? I propose a theory of urban bureaucratic policy implementation that argues that city agencies are an important vehicle for the implementation of regional policies due to their bureaucratic autonomy. I focus on two strategies these agencies use to facilitate implementation: reframing regional policy to align with the city's interest, and redesigning policy to reduce political opposition. I test the theory by examining the implementation of "housing mobility" programs that help low-income families move to areas of opportunity in the United States, finding that reframing housing mobility from a desegregation policy to an upward economic mobility strategy facilitated implementation of regional policies by recasting it in the city's interest. I end by reflecting on paradoxical conclusions for democratic accountability, given that agencies less accountable to city leaders may in fact be more responsive to society by enacting policy to benefit the regional good.
by Nicholas F. Kelly.
Paper One. The price of neighborhood opportunity : the case for the school-violence-poverty index and opportunity bargain analysis / Nicholas Kelly, Ingrid Gould Ellen -- Paper Two. Innovations to expand access to opportunity neighborhoods for low-income families in Greater Boston / Nicholas Kelly -- Paper Three. All policy implementation is local : how the rise of housing mobility programs helps explain urban bureaucratic politics / Nicholas Kelly.
Ph. D. in Public Policy and Urban Planning
Ph.D.inPublicPolicyandUrbanPlanning Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning