Does welfare policy affect residential choices? An empirical investigation accounting for policy endogeneity

This paper studies how changes in welfare policy affect welfare recipients' residential choices. Although several empirical studies have stressed that welfare policy may affect residential choices of welfare recipients, few studies have simultaneously taken into account that residential choices of welfare recipients are also likely to affect welfare policy. This paper utilizes a policy reform to address this policy endogeneity. The results show that welfare policy exerts a substantial effect on residential choices of welfare recipients.