Journal of Economic Literature
ISSN 0022-0515 (Print) | ISSN 2328-8175 (Online)
Review of Climbing Mount Laurel: The Struggle for Affordable Housing and Social Mobility in an American Suburb by Douglas S. Massey et al.
Journal of Economic Literature
vol. 55,
no. 2, June 2017
(pp. 609–20)
Abstract
Climbing Mount Laurel, authored by a group of sociologists led by Douglas S. Massey, is about the efforts by Mount Laurel Township, NJ, residents to have affordable housing built in their community. From when it was first proposed in 1969 and until the first units were completed in 2000, the project faced extraordinary political opposition, caused a number of landmark court decisions, and motivated affordable-housing legislation by other US states. This review evaluates, from an economics perspective, the lessons learned, as argued by Massey et al., about the impact of affordable housing within the host community and on surrounding communities.Citation
Ioannides, Yannis M. 2017. "Review of Climbing Mount Laurel: The Struggle for Affordable Housing and Social Mobility in an American Suburb by Douglas S. Massey et al." Journal of Economic Literature, 55 (2): 609–20. DOI: 10.1257/jel.20151292Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- R21 Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Housing Demand
- R23 Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics
- R31 Housing Supply and Markets
- R38 Production Analysis and Firm Location: Government Policy
- Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification