Neighborhoods Matter: Assessing the Evidence for Place Effects

Eric Chyn and Lawrence Katz

No 28953, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: How does one's place of residence affect individual behavior and long-run outcomes? Understanding neighborhood and place effects has been a leading question for social scientists during the past half-century. Recent empirical studies using experimental and quasi-experimental research designs have generated new insights on the importance of residential neighborhoods in childhood and adulthood. This paper summarizes the recent neighborhood effects literature and interprets the findings. Childhood neighborhoods affect long-run economic and educational outcomes in a manner consistent with exposure models of neighborhood effects. For adults, neighborhood environments matter for their health and well-being but have more ambiguous impacts on labor market outcomes. We discuss the evidence on the mechanisms behind the observed patterns and conclude by highlighting directions for future research.

JEL-codes: H75 I38 R23 R38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab, nep-ltv and nep-ure
Note: CH LS PE
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (57)

Published as Eric Chyn & Lawrence F. Katz, 2021. "Neighborhoods Matter: Assessing the Evidence for Place Effects," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 35(4), pages 197-222, Fall.
Published as Eric Chyn & Lawrence F. Katz, 2021. "Neighborhoods Matter: Assessing the Evidence for Place Effects," Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol 35(4), pages 197-222.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w28953.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Neighborhoods Matter: Assessing the Evidence for Place Effects (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28953

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w28953

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().