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.

10:30-11:30 Yuta Toyama (Waseda Univesity), “Designing Nonlinear Electricity Pricing with Misperception: Evidence from Free Electricity Policy” (with Ngawang Dendup)
11:35-12:35 Katalin Springel (HEC Montréal)), “Entry and Coordination in the Electric Vehicle Charging Industry” (with Jing Li)