The Effects of Habitat on Basic Infrastructure

The social program Habitat was created to overcome the challenges presented in the marginalized urban areas in Mexico due to high concentrations of poverty. This paper presents the results of an impact evaluation of the effects of Habitat on basic infrastructure during the first two years of implementation using Census data. The evaluation uses a quasi-experimental approach based on propensity score matching to create comparison groups similar to the intervention groups in 3 components: (1) access to drinking water, (2) access to sewage and drainage, and (3) access to electricity. We estimate Habitat’s impact using a difference-in-differences estimator for each of the three infrastructure components. We find evidence that Habitat intervention increased access to sewage about 3 percentage points more in the intervention group than in similar comparison polygons, but it did not have a statistically significant effect in access to drinking water or electricity.