Plausibly Exogenous [943] - Ethnic Diversity (08/29/2022)

LHS Variable
Social relationships and housing quality

RHS Variable
Ethnic diversity

Source of Exogenous Variation
Exogenous allocation of households within public housing with respect to ethnic characteristics in France: Owing to a strongly republican ideology, the French public housing system allocates state-planned moderate-cost rental apartments (HLMs—habitations à loyer modéré) to natives and immigrants without concern for their cultural and ethnic background, mixing people indiscriminately. Some HLM neighborhoods are consequently quite diverse and others quite homogeneous. Furthermore, HLM inhabitants rarely move, as the rents are much lower than market rates.

- Algan, Hemet, and Laitin (2016), “The Social Effects of Ethnic Diversity at the Local Level: A Natural Experiment with Exogenous Residential Allocation”