Neighbourhood Effects Research at a Crossroads: Ten Challenges for Future Research

Arbeitspapier

Neighbourhood effects research is at a crossroads since current theoretical and empirical approaches do not seem to be moving the debate forward. In this paper, we present a set of ten challenges as a basis for a new research agenda which will give new direction to the neighbourhood effects debate. The ten challenges are: 1) Future work should concentrate on explaining what is in the black-box of the 'neighbourhood effect' by deriving and testing clear hypotheses on causal neighbourhood effect mechanisms; 2) Studies should explicitly investigate the relationship between neighbourhood context and individual outcomes; 3) Alternative outcome variables such as subjective well-being should be considered; 4) We should move away from point-in-time measures of neighbourhood characteristics and take into account people's neighbourhood histories; 5) More attention is needed for the intergenerational transmission of neighbourhood effects; 6) We need to understand neighbourhood selection and to incorporate neighbourhood selection explicitly in models of neighbourhood effects; 7) We need a better operationalization of neighbourhood; 8) Neighbourhood effects researchers need to broaden their horizon to include other spatial contexts which might matter, in addition, or in place of the residential neighbourhood; 9) We need bespoke data to investigate neighbourhood effects; 10) The tenth and final challenge is to combine qualitative and quantitative methods into one research design.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: RatSWD Working Paper ; No. 204

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: General ; Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics
• Subject: neighbourhood effects ; challenges ; causality ; theory ; bespoke data ; Nachbarschaft ; Sozialforschung

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): van Ham, Maarten ; Manley, David
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Rat für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsdaten (RatSWD)
• (where): Berlin
• (when): 2012

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/75321
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET