Search

The causal impact of the built environment on travel behaviours is a subject of debate. This debate especially concerns the independent effect of the built environment on the observed travel patterns after taking into account residential self-selection arising from pre-existing travel-related attitude. This study argues that travel attitude varies over time, and thus, is also reshaped by residential built environment and interrelated with residents’ travel behaviours. Focusing on the event of residential relocation in the Netherlands, this study longitudinally investigated the interrelations between travel mode choices and preferences before, immediately after and a year after the relocation. Results from the random-intercept cross-lagged panel models substantiated the residential self-selection based on the pre-relocation preferences for motorised means of transport, including cars and public transport. Moreover, travel mode preferences varied to a greater extent than travel mode use pre–post relocation, and especially, frequent use of public transport or bicycles stimulated by the new place of residence had a one-year lagged effect on developing the mode preference. Therefore, the structural role of residential built environment manifests as (re)shaping travel mode choices as well as mode-specific preferences in the process of residential relocation.

Although Italian cities have undergone several waves of touristification, concerns about overtourism have only recently become widespread. In the article, we suggest that the diffusion of short-ter...

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by plant roots can influence the germination and growth of neighbouring plants. However, little is known about the effects of root VOCs on plant–herbivore interactions of neighbouring plants. The spotted knapweed (Centaurea stoebe) constitutively releases high amounts of sesquiterpenes into the rhizosphere. Here, we examine the impact of C. stoebe root VOCs on the primary and secondary metabolites of sympatric Taraxacum officinale plants and the resulting plant‐mediated effects on a generalist root herbivore, the white grub Melolontha melolontha. We show that exposure of T. officinale to C.stoebe root VOCs does not affect the accumulation of defensive secondary metabolites but modulates carbohydrate and total protein levels in T. officinale roots. Furthermore, VOC exposure increases M. melolontha growth on T. officinale plants. Exposure of T. officinale to a major C. stoebe root VOC, the sesquiterpene (E)‐β‐caryophyllene, partially mimics the effect of the full root VOC blend on M. melolontha growth. Thus, releasing root VOCs can modify plant–herbivore interactions of neighbouring plants. The release of VOCs to increase the susceptibility of other plants may be a form of plant offense., Root volatiles released by Centaurea stoebe modulate root growth and primary metabolism of Taraxacum officinale. These changes are associated with increased root herbivore growth on T. officinale, thus demonstrating that root volatiles can modify plant‐herbivore interactions in neighboring plants

Objectives:To determine if levels of neighbourhood poverty and neighbourhood antisocial behaviour modify associations between household poverty and child and youth mental health problems.Methods:Data come from the 2014 Ontario Child Health Study—a provincially representative survey of 6537 families with 10,802 four- to 17-year-olds. Multivariate multilevel modelling was used to test if neighbourhood poverty and antisocial behaviour interact with household poverty to modify associations with children’s externalizing and internalizing problems based on parent assessments of children (4- to 17-year-olds) and self-assessments of youth (12- to 17-year-olds).Results:Based on parent assessments, neighbourhood poverty, and antisocial behaviour modified associations between household poverty and children’s mental health problems. Among children living in households below the poverty line, levels of mental health problems were 1) lower when living in neighbourhoods with higher concentrations of poverty and 2) higher when living in neighbourhoods with more antisocial behaviour. These associations were stronger for externalizing versus internalizing problems when conditional on antisocial behaviour and generalized only to youth-assessed externalizing problems.Conclusion:The lower levels of externalizing problems reported among children living in poor households in low-income neighbourhoods identify potential challenges with integrating poorer households into more affluent neighbourhoods. More important, children living in poor households located in neighbourhoods exhibiting more antisocial behaviour are at dramatically higher risk for mental health problems. Reducing levels of neighbourhood antisocial behaviour could have large mental health benefits, particularly among poor children.

Health research into neighbourhood effects has generally examined neighbourhoods cross-sectionally, ignoring the fact that neighbourhood exposures might accumulate over people's lives and affect health outcomes later in life. Using longitudinal Dutch register data with complete 15-year residential address histories, we examined whether health effects of neighbourhood socioeconomic characteristics differ between cumulative and current exposures. We illustrated these differences between exposure assessments using suicide mortality among middle-aged adults. All suicides aged 40–64 years between 2012 and 2016 were matched with 10 random controls in a nested case-control design. We measured neighbourhood exposures longitudinally for circular buffers around residential addresses at the current address and through three accumulative measures, each incorporating the residential address history with increasing detail. Covariate-adjusted conditional logistic regressions were used to assess associations between suicide and neighbourhood social fragmentation, population density and unemployment rate. Our results showed that total and male suicide mortality was significantly lower in highly fragmented neighbourhoods when using accumulative exposures, but not when using the current residential address. However, we observed few differences in coefficients between exposures assessments for neighbourhood urbanicity and unemployment rate. None of the neighbourhood characteristics showed evidence that detailed cumulative exposures were a stronger predictor of suicide compared to more crude measures. Our findings provide little evidence that socioeconomic neighbourhood characteristics measured cumulatively along people's residential histories are stronger predictors of suicide mortality than cross-sectional exposures.

Many housing researchers and policymakers assume that homeownership remains the tenure of choice for many individuals and their households in the UK and internationally. Housing affordability concerns and access to mortgage finance have taken centre stage in the debate about the declining prospects for young adults to enter homeownership. Yet, some recent studies have questioned how well we understand other factors that combine to shape housing and tenure outcomes for young adults. We specifically ask whether different combinations of neighbourhood effects, homeownership path dependency and social capital influence tenure transitions for young adults. We provide estimates using multi-level mixed-effects logistic regression models using the British Household Panel Survey 2001-15 for Great Britain. We find evidence to support the argument that these specific effects help to shape housing and tenure outcomes for young adults, albeit with socialization within the family appearing to have a stronger effect in comparison to neighbourhood socialization. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement n. 615159 (ERC Consolidator Grant DEPRIVEDHOODS, Socio-spatial inequality, deprived neighbourhoods, and neighbourhood effects). Research on neighborhood effects has increasingly focused on how long children have lived in a deprived neighborhood during childhood (duration), but has typically ignored when in childhood the exposure occurred (timing) and whether neighborhood circumstances were improving or deteriorating (sequencing). In this article, the authors applied sequence analysis to simultaneously capture children’s duration, timing, and sequencing of exposure to neighborhood (dis)advantage in childhood. Logistic regression analysis was subsequently used to test how different patterns of exposure are related to teenage parenthood, school dropout, and delinquent behavior. Using register data from the Netherlands, an entire cohort was followed from birth in 1995 up until age 19 in 2014 (N = 168,645, 48.8% females, 83.2% native Dutch). Compared to children who had lived in a deprived neighborhood throughout childhood, children who were exposed to neighborhood deprivation only during adolescence were found to be equally likely to become a teenage parent and were even more likely to drop out of school. Unexpectedly, children who had lived in an affluent neighborhood throughout childhood were most likely to engage in delinquent behavior. Possible explanations and implications are discussed. Publisher PDF

The rapid and ongoing process of urbanisation in Bogota has brought about significant socio-spatial segregation between city-dwellers. Such segregation is becoming increasingly complex as patterns of fragmentation are evolving towards a more ‘cellular’ differentiation between rich and poor –urban segregation which changes in terms of scale: from macro (neighbourhoods) to micro scales (blocks, streets). Urban segregation has been associated as a barrier for disadvantaged communities, especially when it becomes an intensifier of inequalities. Unequal access to services, availability of local employment, urban facilities, opportunities and supportive social relationships are examples of how segregation affects the distribution of quality of life, undermines attempts for social inclusion and, ultimately, creates unjust geographies. Alongside this context, public policy and measurements of quality of life have frequently overlooked spatial contexts of inequalities since a utility-based definition of well-being is often taken for granted. With the city of Bogota as a testing ground, this thesis analyses how and to what extent new patterns of urban segregation affect the distribution of capabilities and quality of life among young adults. Based on a capability place-based approach to well-being, this research will attempt to conceptualise urban quality of life, look at how patterns of urban segregation affect urban functionings, and quantify to what extent microsegregation explains differentials in capability achievement of quality of life among young adults in Bogota.

Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors We study whether childhood neighbourhood context affects mental health in adolescence in Finland. We also examine heterogeneous effects by family background. By exploiting register data for 1999–2018, we use sibling fixed effects models to gain more robust evidence on the existence of neighbourhood effects. We do not find evidence of an association between neighbourhood characteristics and psychiatric disorders within families. Differences in the effects by family background were not consistent, and variation was mainly found in random effects models. In general, observed family characteristics were strongly associated with psychiatric disorders. This means that interventions should be targeted to children at risk rather than certain neighbourhoods.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by plant leaves can influence the physiology of neighbouring plants. In contrast to leaf VOCs, little is known about the role of root VOCs in plant–plant interactions. Here, we characterize constitutive root VOC emissions of the spotted knapweed (Centaurea stoebe) and explore the impact of these VOCs on the germination and growth of different sympatric plant species. We show that C. stoebe roots emit high amounts of sesquiterpenes, with estimated release rates of (E)‐β‐caryophyllene above 3 μg g−1 dw hr−1. Sesquiterpene emissions show little variation between different C. stoebe populations but vary substantially between different Centaurea species. Through root transcriptome sequencing, we identify six root‐expressed sesquiterpene synthases (TPSs). Two root‐specific TPSs, CsTPS4 and CsTPS5, are sufficient to produce the full blend of emitted root sesquiterpenes. VOC‐exposure experiments demonstrate that C. stoebe root VOCs have neutral to positive effects on the germination and growth of different sympatric neighbours. Thus, constitutive root sesquiterpenes produced by two C. stoebe TPSs are associated with facilitation of sympatric neighbouring plants. The release of root VOCs may thus influence plant community structure in nature., Centaurea stoebe plants emit high amounts of root sesquiterpenes, which are produced by two root‐specific sesquiterpene synthases. Exposure to C. stoebe root volatiles increases the germination and growth of sympatric neighbours, thus highlighting the potential of root volatiles to mediate plant–plant interactions.

Indirect interactions among plant species mediated by frugivorous animals can be central to population and community dynamics, since the successful seed dispersal of species may depend on facilitative or competitive interactions with heterospecific plants. Yet, empirical evidence on these interactions is very scarce and mostly available at small spatial scales, within populations. Because lipid-rich fruits are known to be preferred by migratory birds, here we test our prediction of competitive inferiority of a carbohydrate-rich fruited species (the hawthorn Crataegus monogyna) compared to lipid-rich co-fruiting species in a Mediterranean region where the bulk of seed dispersal relies on migratory birds. We assessed avian seed dispersal in both relative (fruit removal rate) and absolute terms (seed dispersal magnitude) in seven hawthorn populations distributed across an altitudinal gradient encompassing three contrasting fruiting contexts: hawthorn is scarce in the lowlands, common in the midlands, and the dominant fruit species in the highlands. We found evidence of seed dispersal reduction due to interspecific competition in the lowland populations, where lipid-rich fruits dominate. Besides, DNA barcoding analysis of bird-dispersed seeds revealed that only a small subset of the local frugivore assemblages consumed hawthorn fruits in the lowland communities. Instead, the consumers of hawthorn fruits resembled the local frugivore assemblages where hawthorn fruits were more dominant and frugivore choices more limited. Our study suggests mechanisms by which the rarity or dominance of plant species might be jointly influenced by environmental constraints (here, precipitation along the altitudinal gradient) and frugivore-mediated indirect interactions among plants hindering or facilitating seed dispersal., Logistical support was provided by the Molecular Ecology Laboratory, Estación Biológica de Doñana (LEM-EBD-CSIC), a facility certified to ISO9001:2015 and ISO14001:2015 quality and environmental management protocols. JPGV and this study were funded by a Severo Ochoa Award for Centres of Excellence in R + D + I (SEV-2012-0262). While writing this paper, JPGV and BR were funded by the ‘Rei Jaume I’ awarded to Prof. Anna Traveset (Institut Mediterrani d’Estudis Avançats, CSIC- UIB). JPGV was also funded by an Individual Fellowship from the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (H2020-MSCA- IF-2014-656572: MobileLinks). We also acknowledge the Spanish ‘Juan de la Cierva Incorporación’ and ‘Ramón y Cajal’ Programmes that currently fund the research activity of BR (IJCI-2017-33475) and JPGV (RYC-2017-22095), respectively.

Many studies have examined the effects of neighbourhoods on educational out-comes. The results of these studies are often conflicting, even if the same independ-ent variables (such as poverty, educational climate, social disorganisation, or ethnic composition) are used. A systematic meta-analysis may help to resolve this lack of external validity. We identified 5,516 articles from which we selected 88 that met all of the inclusion criteria. Using meta-regression, we found that the relation between neighbourhoods and individual educational outcomes is a function of neighbourhood poverty, the neighbourhood’s educational climate, the proportion of ethnic/migrant groups, and social disorganisation in the neighbourhood. The variance in the findings from different studies can partly be explained by the sampling design and the type of model used in each study. More important is the use of control variables (school, family SES, and parenting variables) in explaining the variation in the strength of neighbourhood effects.

We designed a longitudinal retrospective cohort study to analyse the associations between neighbourhood social capital and child injures. Register data from the Umeå Simsam Lab in Sweden was used to measure child injuries and demographic and socioeconomic factors at individual, household and neighbourhood level. A social capital score from a previous survey was used to measure neighbourhood social capital. We conducted a three-level multilevel negative binomial regression analysis, with children (level 1, N = 77,193) nested within households (level 2, N = 10,465), and households nested within neighbourhoods (level 3, N = 49). The incidence rate of child injuries was lower in high social capital neighbourhoods. When controlling for factors at individual, household and neighbourhood levels, living in a high social capital neighbourhood was protective of injuries among girls, but not among boys. Promoting social capital in local neighbourhoods could be seen as a prevention strategy for injuries among girls.

This paper studies the results of an unconventional cultural event, Paratissima (Turin, Italy), in the light of place-making theory and culture led-growth theories as well as also touching upon the literature on cultural policies. Using a qualitative and semi-quantitative method, the paper analyses the effects of the event produces in terms of individual and collective experiences, representations, and intentions at the local scale. As a result, the analysis shows that, although initially thought to be a critical ‘private’ initiative, the case of Paratissima progressively developed positive mutual relationships with the urban context – a neighbourhood effect – which allowed it to emerge as an interesting example of a cultural event that seems to contrast to the most renown findings of scholarly literature, as well as the conventional cultural policies. As such, the case study offers some insights on the role of cultural events in place-making.

Part of the research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007–2013) / ERC Grant Agreement n. 615159 (ERC Consolidator Grant DEPRIVEDHOODS, Socio-spatial inequality, deprived neighbourhoods, and neighbourhood effects) and from the Marie Curie programme under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007–2013) / Career Integration Grant n. PCIG10-GA-2011-303728 (CIG Grant NBHCHOICE, Neighbourhood choice, neighbourhood sorting, and neighbourhood effects). In the literature examining neighbourhood effects on educational outcomes, the socialisation mechanism is usually investigated by looking at the association between neighbourhood characteristics and educational attainment. The step in between, that adolescents actually internalise educational norms held by residents, is often assumed. We attempt to fill this gap by looking at how the internalisation of educational norms (commitments) is influenced by neighbourhoods’ immigrant concentration. We investigate this process for both migrant and native youth, as both groups might be influenced differently by immigrant concentrations. To test our hypothesis we used longitudinal panel data with five waves (N = 4255), combined with between-within models which control for a large portion of potential selection bias. These models have an advantage over naïve OLS models in that they predict the effect of change in neighbourhood characteristics on change in educational commitment, and therefore offer a more dynamic approach to modelling neighbourhood effects. Our results show that living in neighbourhoods with higher proportions of immigrants increases the educational commitments of migrant youth compared to living in neighbourhoods with lower proportions. Besides, we find that adolescents with a resilient personality experience less influence of the neighbourhood context on educational commitments than do adolescents with non-resilient personalities. Publisher PDF

Research suggests that legal cynicism—a cultural frame in which the law is viewed as illegitimate and ineffective—encourages violence to maintain personal safety when legal recourse is unreliable. But no study has tested the impact of legal cynicism on appraisals of violence. Drawing from symbolic interaction theory and cultural sociology, we tested whether neighbourhood legal cynicism alters the extent to which parents appraise their children’s violence as indicative of aggressive or impulsive temperaments using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. We find that legal cynicism attenuates the positive association between adolescent violence and parental assessments of aggression and impulsivity. Our study advances the understanding of micro-level processes through which prevailing cultural frames in the neighbourhood shape violence appraisals.

In literature on neighbourhood effects and resources accessibility, the number of neighbourhood resources to which residents may have access are often estimated from spatial units whose constant size fails to account for unique ways residents experience their neighbourhoods. To investigate this ‘constant size neighbourhood trap’, we compared numbers of healthcare resources included in Constant Size Buffers (CSBs) and in Perceived Neighbourhood Polygons (PNPs) from cognitive neighbourhood data collected among 653 residents of the Paris metropolitan area. We observed that residents of deprived and peripheral areas had smaller PNPs than their counterparts. Studying residents assessments of the quantity of neighbourhood practitioners, we then assessed the validity of using PNPs rather than CSBs to estimate number of neighbourhood resources. Lastly, resource inequalities across the Paris metropolitan area were found to be far wider when considering PNPs rather than CSBs. Using constant neighbourhood delineation can lead to inaccurately measured individual accessibility to neighbourhood resources and to downplay the extent of inequalities in urban resources.

Place and health are inextricably entwined. Whilst insights have been gained into the associations between places, such as neighbourhoods, and health, the understanding of these relationships remains only partial. One of the reasons for this relates to time and change and the inter-relationships between the dynamic nature of both neighbourhoods and health. This paper argues that the lifecourse of place can be used as a conceptual framework to understand the evolution and ongoing development of neighbourhoods, and their impact on the geographies of health, past, present and future. Moreover, this paper discusses the capacity of a longitudinal form of enquiry – latent transition analysis – that is able to operationalise conceptual models of the lifecourse of place. To date, latent transition analysis has not been applied to the study of neighbourhoods and health. Drawing on research across a range of disciplines including developmental psychology, sociology, geography and epidemiology, this paper also considers praxis-based implications and recommendations for applications of latent transition analysis that aim to advance understanding of how neighbourhoods affect health in and over time. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This article investigates the effect of different levels of neighbourhood housing tenure mix and deprivation on transitions from unemployment to employment and the probability of staying in employment for those with a job. We used multiple regression models and unique individual level data from the Scottish Longitudinal Study. We found that high correlations between the percentage of social renting in a neighbourhood and labour market outcomes disappeared when controlling for neighbourhood deprivation, individual level education and tenure. The results show that living in a deprived neighbourhood is negatively correlated with labour market performance, but predominantly for homeowners and not for social renters. We suggest that selection effects and not causation are behind the neighbourhood effects found. Postprint

Using a unique data set, we present evidence on income trajectories of people living in micro-neighbourhoods. We investigate neighbourhood influences making as few parametric assumptions as possible. The article offers a number of advances. We exploit a data set that is large, representative, longitudinal, with very local neighbourhoods. We analyse income growth over 1-, 5- and 10-year windows. We analyse the whole distribution of income growth and track large gainers and losers as well as averages. We consider the appropriate definition of neighbourhood. We find no evidence of a negative relationship between neighbourhood disadvantage and subsequent income growth; indeed, some evidence of a positive relationship. Copyright 2007, Oxford University Press.

This paper presents a counter-factual model identifying Average Treatment Effects (ATEs) by Conditional Mean Independence when externality (or neighbourhood) effects are incorporated within the traditional potential outcome model. As such, it tries to generalize the usual approach, widely used in program evaluation, when SUTVA (i.e. Stable Unit Treatment Value Assumption) is relaxed. This new approach is applied to a locally-based policy. More specifically, we focus on the Garda lake area that is one of the 14 touristic districts in Trentino ? an Alpine province in north-east Italy. In the time window under scrutiny ? 2002-2006 ? Trentino had in place a subsidy policy for hotels ? 3-digit sector 55.1: hotels and similar accommodation, as defined in the NACE Rev.2 ? within the Provincial Law 6/99. There is no confounding effects coming from other policy measures given that Trentino hotels can only have access to subsidies related to Provincial Law 6/99. We rely on a database built relying on different sources and contains administrative information, structural characteristics of hotels and exhaustive information about the subsidies they received during the period. The sample size is 415 and consists of the Garda lake hotels active from 2002 to 2006.

This paper is concerned with methods for analysing spatial data. After initial discussion on the nature of spatial data, including the concept of randomness, we focus most of our attention on linear regression models that involve interactions between agents across space. The introduction of spatial variables in to standard linear regression provides a flexible way of characteristing these interactions, but complicates both interpretation and estimation of parameters of interest. The estimation of these models leads to three fundamental challenges: the ‘reflection problem’, the presence of omitted variables and problems caused by sorting. We consider possible solutions to these problems, with a particular focus on restrictions on the nature of interactions. We show that similar assumptions are implicit in the empirical strategies - fixed effects or spatial differencing - used to address these problems in reduced form estimation. These general lessons carry over to the policy evaluation literature.

Homeownership is heavily subsidized in many countries mainly through the tax code. The adverse effects of lenient tax treatment of owner-occupied housing on economic efficiency and growth are large and well documented in the economics literature. The main argument in favor of subsidizing owner-occupied housing is that it creates positive externalities that offset these adverse effects. This paper tests whether homeowners create positive externalities to their immediate neighbourhood that capitalize into housing prices in multi-storey buildings. Using semiparametric hedonic regressions with and without instrumental variables we find no evidence of positive externalities from neighbourhood homeownership rate. This result is robust to relaxing the identification assumptions of our instrument using a recently developed set identification method. Our results suggest that the adverse efficiency effects of lenient tax treatment of owner-occupied housing are not offset by positive externalities.

Neighbourhood effects research is at a crossroads since current theoretical and empirical approaches do not seem to be moving the debate forward. In this paper, we present a set of ten challenges as a basis for a new research agenda which will give new direction to the neighbourhood effects debate. The ten challenges are: 1) Future work should concentrate on explaining what is in the black-box of the 'neighbourhood effect' by deriving and testing clear hypotheses on causal neighbourhood effect mechanisms; 2) Studies should explicitly investigate the relationship between neighbourhood context and individual outcomes; 3) Alternative outcome variables such as subjective well-being should be considered; 4) We should move away from point-in-time measures of neighbourhood characteristics and take into account people's neighbourhood histories; 5) More attention is needed for the intergenerational transmission of neighbourhood effects; 6) We need to understand neighbourhood selection and to incorporate neighbourhood selection explicitly in models of neighbourhood effects; 7) We need a better operationalization of neighbourhood; 8) Neighbourhood effects researchers need to broaden their horizon to include other spatial contexts which might matter, in addition, or in place of the residential neighbourhood; 9) We need bespoke data to investigate neighbourhood effects; 10) The tenth and final challenge is to combine qualitative and quantitative methods into one research design.

Unpublished Masters dissertation written in summer 2011, for MSc Spatial Planning, which attempts to explore the 'neighbourhood effects' and 'mixed communities' debates of the time through a single case study of Greenwich Millennium Village, London, one of New Labour's flagship 'sustainable communities'. Over-theorised and under-researched in terms of the policy itself, but may provide some useful insights into social mixing in a specific new build neighbourhood.

The idea that living in a deprived neighbourhood negatively affects the occupational mobility of residents has been embraced enthusiastically by many policy makers and academics. As a result, area based initiatives are now widely used to improve an individual's life course through the diversification of the neighbourhood in which they live. However, these area based initiatives have received increasing criticism from academics stating that there is no solid evidence base that neighbourhood effects really exist. One of the main problems is that many studies use cross-sectional data which does not allow the separation of cause and effect. We use longitudinal data from the Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS) to investigate the influence of neighbourhood context on employment outcomes. The SLS allows us to follow individuals between 1991 and 2001, using linked records from both Censuses. Using this data we examine whether, for employed individuals, living in a deprived neighbourhood reduces occupational mobility using ISEI scores; for individuals out of work, we examine whether living in a deprived neighbourhood reduces their chances of obtaining work. Using regression models, we control for a range of individual and household characteristics. All other things being equal, those individuals living in more deprived communities should experience significant negative effects accrued from their neighbourhood if the neighbourhood effects thesis is to be confirmed.

An important debate in current research and policy focuses on the role of spatial characteristics and urban residential segregation on the social mobility of immigrants. Much focus has been on ‘neighbourhood effects’, and on how internal spatial variations within the city affects the life careers of immigrants. We add the analysis of variations of labour market incorporation between cities to this discussion, thus following the recent interest of migration scholars on the role of the individual city on immigrants’ labour market performance in the host country. Accordingly, in this study, we analyse the labour market careers of one migrant cohort to Sweden from an urban perspective, where the analysis of ‘neighbourhood effects’ and ‘city effects’ are studied jointly. We use a longitudinal data base derived from Swedish population registers and discrete-time event history analysis with the aim to study immigrant transition to employment in a ten-year period after arrival, and to investigate the correlation between occupational and residential careers. The results show that the migrants’ labour market participation increases slowly over time, and there are large variations between immigrant groups. Migrant origin, gender and education are crucial factors in getting the first job. Both ’neighbourhood effects’ and ‘city effects’ were significant, but the former decreased over time. Accordingly, there was no sign of a ‘downward spiral’ from residing in distressed neighbourhoods. Instead there was a robust ‘city effect’, which we interpret as being influenced by the role of the individual city in the global economy and the city’s local labour market structure.

An empirical literature has found that neighborhood heterogeneity lowers people's likelihood of contributing to public goods. We show that the estimated effect of any concave neighborhood characteristic on behavior may be biased when “large” rather than “small” neighborhoods are used. Large boundaries omit the effect of differences between small neighborhoods, biasing a characteristic's total effect even when the omitted differences lack economic effect. We next use three New Zealand census rounds to test whether volunteering rates are lowered by neighborhood heterogeneity by race/ethnicity, birthplace, income or language. We find boundaries matter, with only ethnic/racial heterogeneity robustly associated with lower volunteering.

This paper uses the Canadian Community Health Survey of 2003 to examine health perceptions among elderly Canadians (age 60 and over). The results indicate that individual factors explain more of the variation in perceived health compared to community factors (employment rate, incidence of low income, percentage of visible minority, percentage of Canadians and percentage of non-family persons in private households). Among individual factors, age, sense of community belonging, education and income adequacy are particularly important in determining how individuals perceive their health. On the other hand, among community factors, the incidence of low income, percentage of visible minority and percentage of non-family persons had an independent effect on perceived health.

There are differences between human groups in social behaviours and the attitudes that underlie them, such as trust. However, the psychological mechanisms that produce and reproduce this variation are not well understood. In particular, it is not clear whether assimilation to the social culture of a group requires lengthy socialization within that group, or can be more rapidly and reversibly evoked by exposure to the group's environment and the behaviour of its members. Here, we report the results of a two-part study in two neighbourhoods of a British city, one economically deprived with relatively high crime, and the other affluent and lower in crime. In the first part of the study, we surveyed residents and found that the residents of the deprived neighbourhood had lower levels of social trust and higher levels of paranoia than the residents of the affluent neighbourhood. In the second part, we experimentally transported student volunteers who resided in neither neighbourhood to one or the other, and had them walk around delivering questionnaires to houses. We surveyed their trust and paranoia, and found significant differences according to which neighbourhood they had been sent to. The differences in the visitors mirrored the differences seen in the residents, with visitors to the deprived neighbourhood reporting lower social trust and higher paranoia than visitors to the affluent one. The magnitudes of the neighbourhood differences in the visitors, who only spent up to 45 min in the locations, were nearly as great as the magnitudes of those amongst the residents. We discuss the relevance of our findings to differential psychology, neighbourhood effects on social outcomes, and models of cultural evolution.

We analyse the extent of intergenerational transmission through parental capital, ethnic capital and neighbourhood effects on several aspects of the school-to-work transition of 2. generation immigrants and young ethnic Danes. The main findings are that parental capital has strong positive effects on the probability of completing a qualifying education and on the entry into the labour market, but it has a much smaller impact on the duration of the first employment spell and on the wage level. Growing up in neighbourhoods with a high concentration of immigrants is associated with negative labour market prospects both for young natives and 2. generation immigrants.

This paper uses data on a sample of Australian teenagers to test for neighbourhood effects on school dropout rates. The data allows us to test for neighbourhood effects at two different spatial scales. We find that educational composition of the larger neighbourhood can influence the dropout rate. We argue that this is most likely to reflect the structure of local labour market demand. We also find that low socio-economic status of the immediate neighbourhood has an adverse impact on dropout rate. This suggests that government policy may need to consider the socio-economic composition of quite small geographical areas if it considers interfering in the market to create greater income mixing within neighbourhoods.

Survey data suggest that unemployed teenagers look for work in ways that differ significantly from the ways which proved successful for teenagers who found work. This paper examines what factors affect the way teenagers look for work in order to explain why we observe this behaviour. We find that the single most important characteristic for explaining the job-search method choices of Australian teenagers is whether they receive unemployment benefits. Receiving benefits increases the probability of teenagers using the government employment agency as the main job-search method by almost 20 percentage points, and decreases their probability of using direct methods (such as contacting employers or friends and relatives) or newspapers by around 10 percentage points each. Personal characteristics and family background are also important for understanding the job-search methods chosen by unemployed teenagers. Another interesting finding is that the local environment, especially the state of the local labour market, is important for explaining job-search method choice. Higher local unemployment rates decrease the probability that an unemployed teenager will use direct search methods, and increase the probability that they will use the government employment agency. These results may help to explain the recently documented evidence that unemployment has become increasingly concentrated in low-socioeconomic-status neighbourhoods (Gregory and Hunter 1995).

Studies on adult racial/ethnic minority populations show that the increasedconcentration of racial/ethnic minorities in a neighbourhood - a so-called ethnic density effect - is associated with improved health of racial/ethnic minority residents when adjusting for area deprivation. However, this literature has focused mainly on adult populations, individual racial/ethnic groups, and single countries, with no studies focusing on children of different racial/ethnic groups or comparing across nations. This study aims to compare neighbourhood ethnic density effects on young children's cognitive and behavioural outcomes in the US and in England. We used data from two nationally representative birth cohort studies, the US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) and the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), to estimate the association between own ethnic density and behavioural and cognitive development at 5 years of age. Findings show substantial heterogeneity in ethnic density effects on child outcomes within and between the two countries, suggesting that ethnic density effects may reflect the wider social and economic context. We argue that researchers should take area deprivation into account when estimating ethnicdensity effects and when developing policy initiatives targeted at strengthening and improving the health and development of racial and ethnic minority children.