Car access and long-term poverty exposure: Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) experiment

In this study we examine the role of automobiles in increasing the length of time that MTO households remain in lower-poverty neighborhoods over a much longer period than previous studies, 1994-2010. A growing body of research suggests that automobiles provide households with better access to opportunities than other modes of travel, particularly in neighborhoods with lower poverty rates in more dispersed urban environments. We find that automobile access reduces households' neighborhood poverty exposure by between 3% and 4%, and automobile access trails only successful lease-up among policy-relevant factors in reducing exposure. Therefore, to maximize the effects of housing mobility programs, we suggest that voucher receipt ought to be paired with policies to increase participants' access to automobiles.