Professor Viviane Sanfelice and her co-author Umair Khalil, have published a new paper titled, Housing Improvement and Crime in the Journal of Public Economics. Their work examines Chicago’s Micro Market Recovery Program (MMRP), designed to enhance private housing stock in distressed neighborhoods. The program led to an increase in housing renovations and occupancy and decreased foreclosures in treated areas. These areas experienced substantial declines in burglaries and robberies. Additionally, neighborhoods with more housing renovations experienced the largest reductions in property crimes. Areas adjacent to these neighborhoods observed similar but smaller crime reductions. Congratulations to Professor Sanfelice and Professor Khalil.