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Neighbourhood deprivation, life satisfaction and earnings: comparative analyses of neighbourhood effects at bespoke scales

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  • Knies, Gundi
  • C. Melo, Patricia
  • Zhang, Min

Abstract

We investigate the effect of neighbourhood deprivation on individual subjective and objective wellbeing for England and Wales. Our identification strategy combines rich longitudinal information on individual characteristics, family background and initial job conditions with panel data estimators and sample restrictions, which address residential sorting bias and neighbourhood-specific confounding effects. Our findings suggest that the effect of neighbourhood deprivation on life satisfaction and wages is not a genuine causal effect, but largely explained by strong spatial sorting mechanisms. We also find that the results overall do not vary by the bespoke spatial scale used to operationalize neighbourhoods.

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  • Knies, Gundi & C. Melo, Patricia & Zhang, Min, 2020. "Neighbourhood deprivation, life satisfaction and earnings: comparative analyses of neighbourhood effects at bespoke scales," ISER Working Paper Series 2020-01, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:ese:iserwp:2020-01
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    2. Eva Andersson & Heleen Janssen & Maarten van Ham & Bo Malmberg, 2023. "Contextual poverty and obtained educational level and income in Sweden and the Netherlands: A multi-scale and longitudinal study," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(5), pages 885-903, April.

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