The extent to which socioeconomic (dis)advantage is transmitted between generations is receiving increasing attention from academics and policymakers. However, few studies have investigated whether there is a spatial dimension to this intergenerational transmission of (dis)advantage. Drawing on the concept of neighbourhood biographies, this study contends that there are links between the places individuals live with their parents and their subsequent neighbourhood experiences as independent adults. Using individual-level register data tracking the whole Stockholm population from 1990 to 2008, and bespoke neighbourhoods, this study is the first to use sequencing techniques to construct individual neighbourhood histories. Through visualisation methods and ordered logit models, we demonstrate that the socioeconomic composition of the neighbourhood children lived in before they left the parental home is strongly related to the status of the neighbourhood they live in 5, 12 and 18 years later. Children living with their parents in high poverty concentration neighbourhoods are very likely to end up in similar neighbourhoods much later in life. The parental neighbourhood is also important in predicting the cumulative exposure to poverty concentration neighbourhoods over a long period of early adulthood. Ethnic minorities were found to have the longest cumulative exposure to poverty concentration neighbourhoods. These findings imply that for some groups, disadvantage is both inherited and highly persistent.

Abstract. Although we know a lot about why households choose certain dwellings, we know relatively little about the mechanisms behind their choice of neighbourhood. Most studies of neighbourhood choice only focus on one or two dimensions of neighbourhoods: typically poverty and ethnicity. This paper argues that neighbourhoods have multiple dimensions and that models of neighbourhood choice should take these dimensions into account. We propose the use of a conditional logit model. From this approach we can gain insight into the interaction between individual and neighbourhood characteristics which lead to the choice of a particular neighbourhood over alternative destinations. We use Swedish register data to model neighbourhood choice for all households which moved in the city of Uppsala between 1997 and 2006. Our results show that neighbourhood sorting is a highly structured process where households are very likely to choose neighbourhoods where the neighbourhood population matches their own characteristics. We find that income is the most important driver of the sorting process, although ethnicity and other demographic and socio-economic characteristics play important roles as well.

Studies of neighbourhood effects typically investigate the instantaneous effect of pointin-time measures of neighbourhood poverty on individual outcomes. It has been suggested that it is not solely the current neighbourhood, but also the neighbourhood history of an individual that is important in determining an individual's outcomes. Using a population of parental home-leavers in Stockholm, Sweden, this study investigates the effects of two temporal dimensions of exposure to neighbourhood environments on personal income later in life: the parental neighbourhood at the time of leaving the home and the cumulative exposure to poverty neighbourhoods in the subsequent 17 years. Using unique longitudinal Swedish register data and bespoke individual neighbourhoods, we are the first to employ a hybrid model, which combines both random and fixed effects approaches in a study of neighbourhood effects. We find independent and non-trivial effects on income of the parental neighbourhood and cumulative exposure to poverty concentration neighbourhoods.

Social ties are among the most important factors explaining destination choices on the international or national scale but much less is known about their role in short‐distance mobility. In this paper, I analyse how the presence of extended family in a neighbourhood affects destination choices on a local housing market – the city of Uppsala, Sweden. I employ a probit model to investigate who is more likely to move to neighbourhoods where extended family members reside, followed by a conditional logit model that tests the importance of the presence of family in relation to other neighbourhood characteristics. Results show that the presence of family is indeed a strong determinant for neighbourhood choice and that non‐Western immigrants, middle‐aged adults, individuals with low socio‐economic status, and individuals who have previously resided in the neighbourhood are most likely to move near family. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.