This report provides an important contribution to our understanding of the relationship between public housing participation and employment outcomes in Australia.

How do housing assistance programs impact economic participation outcomes, once we control for the mediating effects that intermediary variables such as ‘health’ and ‘neighbourhood’ have on economic participation outcomes?

This paper utilises the administrative records of a state housing authority to explore welfare locks, the work incentive effects of income related rents and welfare dependence in relation to public housing.

In the twenty years 1982-2002 the employment participation rate of all working age persons has increased. Since 1982 there has been a particularly sharp increase in participation rates among women residing in households that are buying their home. On the other hand employment participation rates among female public housing tenants have remained low. Among males...

Gavin Wood and Rachel Ong report on the first stage of a project examining how housing assistance programs impact on economic participation outcomes once we control for the mediating effects that intermediary variables such as health and neighbourhood effects can have on economic participation outcomes.