Neighbourhood deprivation, life satisfaction and earnings: Comparative analyses of neighbourhood effects at bespoke scales

Abstract

Neighbourhood socioeconomic disadvantage has a profound impact on individuals’ earnings and life satisfaction. Since definitions of the neighbourhood and research designs vary greatly across studies, it is difficult to ascertain which neighbourhoods and outcomes matter the most. By conducting parallel analyses of the impact of neighbourhood deprivation on life satisfaction and earnings at multiple scales, we provide a direct empirical test of which scale matters the most and whether the effects vary between outcomes. Our identification strategy combines rich longitudinal information on individual characteristics, family background and initial job conditions for England and Wales with econometric estimators that address residential sorting bias, and we compare results for individuals living in choice-restricted social housing with results for those living in self-selected privately rented housing. We find that the effect of neighbourhood deprivation on life satisfaction and wages is negative for both outcomes and largely explained by strong residential sorting on both individual and neighbourhood characteristics rather than a genuine causal effect. We also find that the results overall do not vary by neighbourhood scale.

The combined effect of Covid-19 and neighbourhood deprivation on two dimensions of subjective well-being: Empirical evidence from England

“…To sum up, our results highlight that both hedonic and evaluative well-being have decreased after the start of the pandemic but people living in the most deprived areas in the UK have seen their day-to-day well-being decrease much more than those living in better areas. Considered that even in the pre-Covid-19 world neighbourhood deprivation was negatively correlated with individual subjective well-being [9,10], our results urge policymakers to rapidly act to diminish neighbourhood inequalities and reduce the increasing spatial clustering of disadvantage which has been enlarged by the pandemic. the many people who have contributed to the development of Understanding Society.…”

“…The relationship between neighbourhood deprivation and well-being has been widely debated [7]. Many have argued that individuals living in neighbourhoods characterised by higher levels of socio-economic deprivation tend to display lower levels of subjective wellbeing as compared to those living in less deprived areas [8][9][10]. Some, tough, have not been able to detect a clear relationship between neighbourhood socio-economic deprivation and individual well-being [11].…”

Multimorbidity is associated with the income, education, employment and health domains of area-level deprivation in adult residents in the UK

“…Additional mechanisms by which multimorbidity may be associated with income and employment domains include an inability of those with poor health to move away from deprived areas. Further there may be a mismatch of jobs and individuals and a lack of quality public services 32 – 34 . Cross-sectional analyses cannot describe the temporal nature of these associations, and longitudinal analyses are better placed to examine the impact of retirement due to health and impact on income and or residential mobility 35 .…”

“…However, the collection of sub-clinical measures of common mental disorder can be considered in our analyses as they enabled us to examine the distribution of common mental disorder and thus provides an insight into processes not captured by health services use. We did not examine conditions such as pain, which is common 23 but may be captured in conditions such as arthritis 34 . The survey may have missed common mental health issues, which are known to be linked to area deprivation such as alcohol dependence and drug misuse 11 , despite an option of ‘other’ mental health issue in the questionnaire.…”

Suicide-related behaviours across sexual orientation and neighbourhood deprivation levels: a retrospective cohort study using linked health administrative data

“…(85). For instance, regional economic and transit developments that help to connect residents to employment opportunities and services may be investigated regarding its impact on SRB risk (86). More recent studies suggest that place-based interventions may not be sufficient to address the problems associated with neighbourhood deprivation, but may be more effectively addressed through broader social policies (87).…”