Moving from a high-poverty to lower-poverty neighborhood
spurs long-term gains in the physical and mental health of low-income adults,
as well as a substantial increase in their happiness, despite not improving
economic self-sufficiency, according to a new study published in the Sept. 20
issue of Science by researchers at the University of Chicago and partners at
other institutions.
Although moving into less disadvantaged neighborhoods did
not raise incomes for the families that moved, these families experienced
important gains in well-being in other ways. Moving from a high-poverty
neighborhood to one with a poverty rate 13 percentage points lower increased
the happiness of low-income adults by an amount equivalent to the gains caused
by a $13,000 rise in family income.