The long shadow of local decline: Birthplace economic adversity and long-term individual outcomes in the UK

Andrew McNeil, Davide Luca and Neil Lee

Journal of Urban Economics, 2023, vol. 136, issue C

Abstract: Does growing up in a high-economic adversity area matter for individual economic, cultural, and political views? Despite a significant focus upon the effect of birthplace on economic outcomes, there is less evidence on how local economic conditions at birth shape individual attitudes over the long-term. This paper links the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) from English and Welsh respondents with historic localised information on unemployment, our measure of economic adversity. Our results, which control for composition effects, family background, and sorting of people across places, show that being born into a high-unemployment Local Authority has a significant, long-term impact on individuals. Birthplace matters beyond economic outcomes, as being born into a Local Authority of high unemployment makes individuals believe in more government intervention in jobs, less progressive on gender issues, and less likely to support the Conservative Party.

Keywords: Place of birth; Unemployment; Lifetime mobility; Social values; Political attitudes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J31 J38 J62 R11 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:juecon:v:136:y:2023:i:c:s0094119023000402

DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2023.103571

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