Finding a Job: The Role of the Neighbourhood for Different Household Configurations over the Life Course

Abstract

The field of neighbourhood effects studies on individual socio-economic outcomes has two main shortcomings. Most studies (i) ignore the impact of the neighbourhood on the duration of inactivity and timing of entering the labour market and, (ii) disregard the heterogeneity of these neighbourhood effects for different household configurations over the life course. Yet, it is likely that the neighbourhood influences its residents in heterogeneous ways. This study analyses the differential impact of the neighbourhood on the individual transition rates from inactivity to work from a life course perspective. It applies a discrete time event history analysis with unique individual-level population panel data from 2004 to 2011 in the Netherlands, covering a random sample of over 30,000 individuals with changes in employment status, household position, and neighbourhoods over time. The models suggest that residing in a deprived neighbourhood only hampers the transition to work for women, above and beyond their individual characteristics and household resources, as well as that this association hinges on their household composition: our findings show that only for partnered mothers with the youngest child below 4 years and single mothers with the youngest child between 4 and 12 years a higher level of neighbourhood deprivation results in a statistically significant reduction in the odds of making the transition to work. These conditional neighbourhood effects reveal unexplored mechanisms and generate different kinds of policy implications from the ones we usually see.

Neighbourhoods, networks and unemployment: The role of neighbourhood disadvantage and local networks in taking up work

“…An exception is Miltenburg (2015), who examined, in a cross-sectional study, the moderating role of neighbourhood social integration on the relationship between neighbourhood’s socio-economic position and resident’s income and found no moderating effect. Miltenburg and van de Werfhorst (2017) demonstrate effect heterogeneity of neighbourhood disadvantage on the transition to employment for individuals in different household constellations, using household constellation as a proxy for social ties in the neighbourhood. Specifically, they deduce that parents spend more time in the neighbourhood and likely have a denser, more locally concentrated social network than childless individuals, especially when children are young.…”

“…Living in a neighbourhood with concentrated poverty reduces well-being and educational attainment, increases problem behaviours and crime and limits employment chances (Sampson et al, 2002; Wodtke et al, 2011). It has been convincingly demonstrated that neighbourhood disadvantage prolongs unemployment (Buck, 2001; Dawkins et al, 2005; Miltenburg and van de Werfhorst, 2017; Musterd et al, 2003). The reasons why, and the conditions under which neighbourhoods influence unemployment duration, remain less clear.…”

Ethnic Differences in Duration and Timing of Exposure to Neighbourhood Disadvantage During Childhood

“…We therefore averaged out various time-varying characteristics of the family (e.g., household income) over the observation period. Although prior research suggests that neighborhood effects on individual socioeconomic outcomes are small (Miltenburg & van de Werfhorst, 2017), we cannot rule out reverse causality for some variables.…”

Understanding changes in the geography of opportunity over time: The case of Santiago, Chile

“…but also social networks to find employment (e.g. Miltenburg and van de Werfhorst, 2017) and the interaction between labour skills and work (e.g. Valiente et al, 2020).…”