Next door
Neighborhood Effects on the Long-Term Well-Being of Low-Income Adults
Jens Ludwig et al.
Science, 21 September 2012, Pages 1505-1510
Abstract:
Nearly 9 million Americans live in extreme-poverty neighborhoods, places that also tend to be racially segregated and dangerous. Yet, the effects on the well-being of residents of moving out of such communities into less distressed areas remain uncertain. Using data from Moving to Opportunity, a unique randomized housing mobility experiment, we found that moving from a high-poverty to lower-poverty neighborhood leads to long-term (10- to 15-year) improvements in adult physical and mental health and subjective well-being, despite not affecting economic self-sufficiency. A 1-standard deviation decline in neighborhood poverty (13 percentage points) increases subjective well-being by an amount equal to the gap in subjective well-being between people whose annual incomes differ by $13,000 - a large amount given that the average control group income is $20,000. Subjective well-being is more strongly affected by changes in neighborhood economic disadvantage than racial segregation, which is important because racial segregation has been declining since 1970, but income segregation has been increasing.
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Focal Points, Endogenous Processes, and Exogenous Shocks in the Autism Epidemic
Kayuet Liu & Peter Bearman
Sociological Methods Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Autism prevalence has increased rapidly in the United States during the past two decades. We have previously shown that the diffusion of information about autism through spatially proximate social relations has contributed significantly to the epidemic. This study expands on this finding by identifying the focal points for interaction that drive the proximity effect on subsequent diagnoses. We then consider how diffusion dynamics through interaction at critical focal points, in tandem with exogenous shocks, could have shaped the spatial dynamics of autism in California. We achieve these goals through an empirically calibrated simulation model of the whole population of 3- to 9-year-olds in California. We show that in the absence of interaction at these foci - principally malls and schools - we would not observe an autism epidemic. We also explore the idea that epigenetic changes affecting one generation in the distal past could shape the precise spatial patterns we observe among the next generation.
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The Postforeclosure Experience of U.S. Households
Raven Molloy & Hui Shan
Real Estate Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Despite the recent flood of foreclosures on residential mortgages, little is known about what happens to borrowers' households after their mortgages have been foreclosed. We study the postforeclosure experience of U.S. households using a unique data set based on the credit reports of a large panel of individuals from 1999 to 2010. Although foreclosure considerably raises the probability of moving, the majority of postforeclosure migrants do not end up in substantially less desirable neighborhoods or more crowded living conditions. These results suggest that, on average, foreclosure does not impose an economic burden large enough to severely reduce housing consumption.
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Foreclosure externalities: Some new evidence
Kristopher Gerardi et al.
NBER Working Paper, September 2012
Abstract:
In a recent set of influential papers, researchers have argued that residential mortgage foreclosures reduce the sale prices of nearby properties. We revisit this issue using a more robust identification strategy combined with new data that contain information on the location of properties secured by seriously delinquent mortgages and information on the condition of foreclosed properties. We find that while properties in virtually all stages of distress have statistically significant, negative effects on nearby home values, the magnitudes are economically small, peak before the distressed properties complete the foreclosure process, and go to zero about a year after the bank sells the property to a new homeowner. The estimates are very sensitive to the condition of the distressed property, with a positive correlation existing between house price growth and foreclosed properties identified as being in "above average" condition. We argue that the most plausible explanation for these results is an externality resulting from reduced investment by owners of distressed property. Our analysis shows that policies that slow the transition from delinquency to foreclosure likely exacerbate the negative effect of mortgage distress on house prices.
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Eviction and the Reproduction of Urban Poverty
Matthew Desmond
American Journal of Sociology, July 2012, Pages 88-133
Abstract:
Combining statistical and ethnographic analyses, this article explores the prevalence and ramifications of eviction in the lives of the urban poor. A quantitative analysis of administrative and survey data finds that eviction is commonplace in inner-city black neighborhoods and that women from those neighborhoods are evicted at significantly higher rates than men. A qualitative analysis of ethnographic data based on fieldwork among evicted tenants and their landlords reveals multiple mechanisms propelling this discrepancy. In poor black neighborhoods, eviction is to women what incarceration is to men: a typical but severely consequential occurrence contributing to the reproduction of urban poverty.
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Aggravating Conditions: Cynical Hostility and Neighborhood Ambient Stressors
Katherine King
Social Science & Medicine, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study is the first to investigate neighborhood clustering of a personality trait - cynical hostility (a sense of mistrust of others amplified by suspicious antagonism.) Cynical hostility increases physiological reactivity by influencing appraisal and coping when stressful events occur and that has been well established as a predictor of cardiovascular disease, inflammation, and all-cause mortality. The analysis examines the associations of a variety of neighborhood physical and social conditions (especially ambient stressors) with individual cynical hostility, controlling for individual sociodemographics. Data are from the Chicago Community Adult Health Survey, a clustered population-based study of 3,105 adults. Variation by neighborhood in cynical hostility is larger than variation of other selected health outcomes, which are commonly studied using ecological methods or for other personality measures. Controlling for neighborhood context reduces the black/white cynical hostility disparity by one-third. A measure of neighborhood ambient stressors (notably noise) significantly predicts cynical hostility, even after individual characteristics are controlled, and the effect size is larger than for other contextual predictors. Health-related psychosocial and personality traits may both cluster in and be influenced by contemporaneous neighborhoods rather than mere exogenous results of genes or early life conditions. Health-relevant psychosocial characteristics may also mediate effects of neighborhood deleterious physical conditions, thereby influencing downstream health outcomes and social disparities therein. Because residential location and neighborhood physical conditions are both modifiable, research on how ambient stressors influence health psychology may be particularly fruitful for health policy and practice.
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Patrick Sharkey
Sociological Methods Research, May 2012, Pages 251-293
Abstract:
This article develops a method to estimate the impact of change in a particular social setting, the residential neighborhood, that is designed to address nonrandom selection into a neighborhood and nonrandom selection out of a neighborhood. Utilizing matching to confront selection into neighborhood environments and instrumental variables to confront selection out of changing neighborhoods, the method is applied to assess the effect of a decline in neighborhood concentrated disadvantage on the economic fortunes of African American children living within changing neighborhoods. Substantive findings indicate that a decline in neighborhood concentrated disadvantage during childhood leads to increases in adult earnings and income, but has no effects on educational attainment or other social outcomes.
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Changes in the white-black house value distribution gap from 1997 to 2005
Eric Fesselmeyer, Kien Le & Kiat Ying Seah
Regional Science and Urban Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper examines the white-black house value gap across the entire value distribution. Instead of using standard conditional mean analysis and decomposition methods (via OLS regression), we estimate and decompose the changes in the white-black house value gap from 1997 to 2005 using quantile regression. We find that the racial gap in 1997 and 2005 is mostly explained by differences in housing characteristics of white- and black-owned houses but that the variation in the racial gap is explained by racial differences in implicit prices of housing characteristics. Our results show that analysis at the conditional mean masks variations at the tails of the distribution.
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Neighborhood Housing Investments and Violent Crime in Seattle, 1981-2007
María Vélez, Christopher Lyons & Blake Boursaw
Criminology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Despite significant advances in the study of neighborhoods and crime, criminologists have paid surprisingly less attention to the extralocal forces that shape violence. To address this issue, we draw on an emerging body of work that stresses the role of home mortgage lending - a resource secured via interaction with external actors - in reducing neighborhood violence and extend it by addressing concerns that the lending-violence relationship is spurious and confounded by simultaneity. We explore the longitudinal relationship between residential mortgage lending and violence in Seattle with a pooled time series of 118 census tracts over 27 years, and we instrument our endogenous predictors (home mortgage lending and violent crime) with changes in their levels from prior periods. Employing Arellano-Bond difference models, we assess both the effect of mortgage lending on violent crime as well as the effect of violent crime levels on mortgage activity. We find that infusions of home mortgage lending yield reductions in subsequent violent crime; yet the impact of violent crime on subsequent lending is not significant. Results underscore the importance of incorporating external forces such as home mortgage lending into explanations of neighborhood violence.
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Wolfgang Gaissmaier & Gerd Gigerenzer
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Terrorists can strike twice - first, by directly killing people, and second, through dangerous behaviors induced by fear in our minds. Gigerenzer (2004, 2006) identified a substantial increase in U.S. traffic fatalities subsequent to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which he accounted for by a substitution of driving for flying, induced by fear of dread risks. Here, we show that this increase varied widely by region, which could best be explained by regional variations in increased driving. These variations could be explained by two factors. The weaker factor was proximity to NYC, where post 9/11 stress reactions were previously shown to be greatest. The stronger factor was driving opportunity, which was operationalized either as highway miles or car registrations per inhabitant. Thus, terrorists' second strike exploited both fear of dread risks and, paradoxically, an environmental structure conducive to generating increased driving, which ultimately increased fatalities.
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Public Housing Units vs. Housing Vouchers: Accessibility, Local Public Goods, and Welfare
Charles Ka Yui Leung, Sinan Sarpça & Kuzey Yilmaz
Journal of Housing Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
We develop a general equilibrium model of residential choice and study the effects of two housing aid policies, public housing units and housing vouchers. Land is differentiated by both residential accessibility and local public goods, and the provision levels of local public goods are determined by property tax revenues and neighborhood compositions. Households differ in their incomes and preferences for local public goods. Housing aid policies are financed by general income taxes. We discuss how the location of public housing units is a fundamental policy variable, in addition to the numbers and sizes of units, and argue that vouchers not only cause less distortion for social welfare compared to public housing, but may also improve overall welfare.
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The Impact of Housing Vouchers on Mobility and Neighborhood Attributes
Michael Eriksen & Amanda Ross
Real Estate Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
This article examines the effect of receiving a housing voucher on the mobility and neighborhood attributes of low-income households. Housing policy has shifted toward vouchers in lieu of public housing projects to allow households to move away from high-poverty areas. We use administrative records collected from an experiment to examine this issue. We find that households moved immediately after receiving the subsidy but did not relocate to lower poverty neighborhoods until several quarters later. Our findings suggest that recipients initially lease in nearby units to secure the subsidy, while continuing to search for housing in lower poverty neighborhoods.
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Sudip Chattopadhyay & Emily Taylor
B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, September 2012
Abstract:
This paper draws on McFadden's location choice theory and incorporates households' residential choice decisions as a hierarchical process in a structural travel demand model. The paper argues that such an approach can effectively tackle the problems of self-selection and multicollinearity. Contrary to previous findings, empirical results based on OLS and 3SLS reveal that travel demand is highly elastic to certain smart-growth features, if they are measured at different spatial scales. The results are robust against alternative sequencing of the hierarchical choice process. An analysis of the quantitative impact of a change in the smart-growth and fuel-tax policies reveals significant returns under both policies. Finally, a simulation based on California suggests that smart growth policies substantially reduce household travel demand.
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Love Thy Neighbor: Income Distribution and Housing Preferences
Tin Cheuk Leung & Kwok Ping Tsang
Journal of Housing Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Do homeowners prefer living in an area with a more equal distribution of income? We answer this question by estimating a semi-parametric hedonic pricing model for about 90,000 housing units transacted in Hong Kong between 2005 and 2006. We first identify a hedonic price function by locally regressing the rental price of the housing unit on its intrinsic and neighborhood characteristics, one of which is the Gini coefficient for household income of the constituency area. We then combine the estimates with a log utility function to obtain the heterogeneous preference parameters. Finally, we estimate the joint distribution of the preference parameters and demographics. We find that most homeowners have a strong distaste for inequality in their neighborhood, and the distaste increases with income and goes down with education level. Counterfactual experiments show that reallocating public rental housing by half can increase the welfare of homeowners by about HK$8,000 on average per year, an amount which is equivalent to increasing the housing unit by 20 square feet or reducing the age of the unit by 5 years.
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Ade Kearns et al.
Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, forthcoming
Background: The study investigated whether perceived relative position was associated with mental well-being for people living in deprived areas, as a contribution to debates about income inequality, relative deprivation and health.
Methods: A survey of 4615 residents of deprived areas of Glasgow measured mental well-being using the WEMWBS scale. Perceived relative position was assessed locally and across wider society in relation to housing, neighbourhood and standard of living. Personal and dwelling characteristics were controlled for.
Results: Mental well-being was found to be positively associated with: perceived relative quality (RR 4.1, 95% CI 2.4 to 6.8) and status (RR 7.1, 95% CI 4.5 to 11.1) of the home; perceived internal reputation of the neighbourhood (RR 4.9, 95% CI 2.9 to 8.2), though not external reputation; and perceived relative standard of living (RR 5.2, 95% CI 3.2 to 8.4). Furthermore, respondents who thought they lived in an area where some people had higher incomes than others also reported higher mental well-being (RR 4.5, 95% CI 2.2 to 9.1), controlling for the effects of their own income.
Conclusion: Studies of inequality and health could give more consideration to the importance of the residential domain of housing and neighbourhood to mental well-being outcomes, via the psychosocial pathway. The local spatial scale may be more important to issues of relative deprivation than previously thought, as people make local as well as broader comparisons. The ability to make upward comparisons of income within deprived areas may be beneficial to residents rather than detrimental, possibly as an indicator of area progress and ‘normality'.
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Robert Wagmiller
Urban Affairs Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
The racial and ethnic diversity of American cities has increased sharply in recent decades. This study uses a unique longitudinal, cohort-comparison research design to investigate changes over the past three decades in the diversity and multigroup integration of Blacks' and Whites' neighborhoods between early and early middle adulthood. This study finds that the neighborhoods in which recent cohorts of Blacks and Whites reside are both more diverse and more integrated than were the neighborhoods of earlier cohorts. Although even in the most recent cohorts Blacks' neighborhoods are more diverse and integrated than Whites' neighborhoods, overall levels of racial and ethnic diversity and integration for Whites and Blacks are converging. However, the types of diversity and integration Whites and Blacks experience in their neighborhoods remain very different.
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Resurgent Ethnicity among Asian Americans: Ethnic Neighborhood Context and Health
Emily Walton
Journal of Health and Social Behavior, September 2012, Pages 378-394
Abstract:
In this study I investigate the associations of neighborhood socioeconomic and social environments with the health of Asian Americans living in both Asian ethnic neighborhoods and non-Asian neighborhoods. I use a sample of 1962 Asian Americans from the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS, 2003-04). Three key findings emerge. First, absolute levels of socioeconomic and social resources do not differ greatly between the Asian ethnic neighborhoods and non-Asian neighborhoods in which Asian Americans live. Second, the ethnic neighborhood context conditions the effects of neighborhood education on health so that higher neighborhood education is related to better self-rated health among Asian Americans only when they live in Asian ethnic neighborhoods. Finally, the social environment, measured by everyday discrimination and social cohesion, does not differ in its health effects for individuals living in Asian ethnic and non-Asian neighborhoods. Together, these findings illuminate the complex ways that racial and ethnic neighborhood concentration impacts health.
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Geographic Variations in Cost of Living: Associations With Family and Child Well-Being
Nina Chien & Rashmita Mistry
Child Development, forthcoming
Abstract:
The effects of geographic variations in cost of living and family income on children's academic achievement and social competence in first grade (mean age = 86.9 months) were examined, mediated through material hardship, parental investments, family stress, and school resources. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (N = 17,565), higher cost of living was associated with lower academic achievement. For poor children only, higher cost of living was also detrimental to parental investments and school resources. Parental investments and school resources were more strongly associated with achievement for lower income than higher income children. Results suggest that cost of living intersects with income in meaningful ways for family and child well-being and should be accounted for in the poverty measure.