Family Moves and the Measurement of Neighborhood Opportunity
-
Series
-
Speaker
-
FieldEmpirical Microeconomics
-
LocationErasmus University Rotterdam, Campus Woudestein, T18-25B
Rotterdam -
Date and time
November 19, 2026
12:00 - 13:00
Abstract
Childhood-exposure estimates from moving families are routinely translated into statements about how much of the geographic variation in children's outcomes is caused by places. This paper revisits that translation. I develop an exact framework for what the canonical age-at-move regressions estimate, characterize when their coefficients support map-wide statements about the population of children the opportunity literature describes, and derive conditions and tests under which the familiar arithmetic is warranted. An application to Dutch register data implements the tests. The paper explains how exposure estimates should be read and on which policy questions they can, and cannot, answer.