Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/339517 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 993
Publisher: 
Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance, London
Abstract: 
Do central slums provide essential economic and social benefits to the poor? We collected bespoke data for 5,000 households to study mass forced clearances in Addis Ababa. Evictees were offered alternative subsidized housing further from the center. Exploiting sharp clearance zone boundaries, regression-discontinuity estimates show negative impacts on social networks, but positive impacts on work, earnings, housing quality and environmental amenity. Relocating households close to their ex-ante neighbors eliminates social costs. Slums are not essential: relocation policies can be designed to fully compensate residents, and the sale value of cleared land more than covers the cost.
JEL: 
O18
R23
R31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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