Does residential mobility affect educational outcomes? Evidence from Chile

ABSTRACT There is mixed evidence about the effects of residential mobility on children’s educational outcomes. In 2013, the Chilean Ministry of Housing implemented a social housing demolition programme, which focused on projects with severe structural and overcrowding problems. Residents from demolished buildings received a subsidy to relocate. In this paper, I conduct a two-way fixed effects analysis and mediation analysis to explore if residential mobility during school years affects attendance and grades for children who moved with this programme, compared to those who were eligible but did not move. Using data for the 2012–2018 period, I find that moving is associated with a decrease in attendance, but the decrease is reduced if the distance between housing and the school is less than 1 km. Moving is not associated with a change in grades, but attendance is, and acts as a mediator between moving and grades.