Research Projects

Spatial Slum Growth, Immigration and Public Goods provision

Work in progress. Slides available upon request.

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Slum-dwelling is a common alternative for housing purposes in developing economies, which are also facing massive international migration flows. Informal squatting is related to this phenomenon: in Chile, more than 30% of slum-dwelling households are of international migrant origin. Nevertheless, slums are extremely segregated, observing communities that are barely mixed in terms of migrant/native origin of their inhabitants. This leads to the question of whether native and migrant population are complements, substitutes or congesting inputs in the production function of slums. By using a 2019-2023 panel dataset at the slum level and a TWFE approach to estimate reduced-form elasticities, I document that while the number of migrant and native households separately increase the spatial extension of slums, when considering them jointly, a negative association is found, pointing to migrant/native congestion effects. These results suggest immigration-induced slum expansion is more likely to occur at the extensive margin. As underlying mechanism, I explore on the lack of communitary organization within slums, a public good requiring collaborative efforts between migrants and natives to prevent eviction, develop transitory urbanization strategies, and advocate for formal housing solutions.

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