Title: Neighbourhood effects, social capital and spatial mobility: evidence from the British Household Pane
1Neighbourhood effects, social capital and spatial
mobility evidence from the British Household
Panel Survey
- Nick Buck
- ISER, University of Essex
2Motivation
- Part of a research project examining how far
where people live has effects on their life
chances independent of personal characteristics - including how it relates to the longer term
development of life chances and social mobility - Longitudinal focus makes it essential to take
account of migration and residential mobility - not just a nuisance factor, but an important
aspect of individual social and economic
mobility, both as a consequence and with
potentially causal effects - Previous analysis shows limited and not very
strong effects of area deprivation on individual
deprivation and social exclusion - Perhaps the effects are indirect, via social
capital and other factors hypothesised to
influence life chances
3Motivation (2)
- Presentation investigates three way
inter-relationships between neighbourhood
deprivation, social capital and migration - Social capital is hypothesised to have positive
effects on both collective and individual
outcomes not something tested here - Many potential dimensions of social capital, as
well as significant measurement issues - Hypothesised negative relationship between social
capital and neighbourhood deprivation - Hypothesised associations between social capital,
especially local and residential mobility - Methodological challenges in identifying area
effects
4Approach
- This research uses individual level survey data
with local area census and other data attached - It uses British Household Panel Survey data which
has a rich array of social capital measures - We exploit the longitudinal dimension provided by
these data - In this analysis main longitudinal focus is on
residential mobility - For intrinsic reasons how does mobility relate
to the development and maintenance of social
capital - Provides evidence on impact of change in area
characteristics (but needs further evidence on
degree of choice in migration)
5Four questions
- Do we find cross-sectional associations between
area deprivation and a range of social capital
measures? - Do social capital measures influence residential
mobility probabilities? - How does residential mobility affect social
capital measures? - Does change in area deprivation associated with
mobility affect social capital measures?
6Data sources
- BHPS waves 8 (1998) and 13 (2003) carry
additional neighbourhood and social capital
questions - Approximately 8,500 cases at wave 8, 6,000 at
wave 13, 2000 movers. - Matched to Townsend area deprivation score,
calculated from 2001 Census data at Lower Super
Output Area (average population 1,400 people)
7Social Capital measures
- Trust generally people can be trusted
- Activity in voluntary organisations
- Whether meet with friends at least once per week
- Whether talk to neighbours at least once per week
- Whether three best friends all live within 5
miles (8 kilometres) - Whether none three best friends in employment
- Neighbourhood affiliation score
8Neighbourhood affiliation score number of
positive responses to
- I feel like I belong to this neighbourhood
- The friendships and associations I have with
other people in my neighbourhood mean a lot to me - If I needed advice about something I could go to
someone in my neighbourhood - I borrow things and exchange favours with my
neighbours - I would be willing to work together with others
on something to improve my neighbourhood - I plan to remain a resident of this neighbourhood
for a number of years - I like to think of myself as similar to the
people who live in this neighbourhood - I regularly stop and talk to people in my
neighbourhood
9Cross-sectional models
- Fit regressions (logistic or OLS) to each social
capital measure Townsend score alone, and then
include a range of personal characteristics (next
slide) - Explore non-linear effects of area deprivation
(Are effects especially strong in most deprived
areas?) - Present graphs showing differences in dependent
variable (values in OLS, relative odds in
logistic) at deciles of Townsend scoere. NB
more deprived have higher scores.
10Individual characteristics included in models
- Age, age squared
- Sex
- Equivalised household income
- Education qualifications (6 categories)
- Social class (7 categories)
- Housing tenure (4 categories)
- Activity status (5 categories)
- Effects of personal characteristics not shown
here generally positive associations with age,
income, higher education and higher social class,
negative effects of being in rented accommodation
11Trust generally people can be trusted
12Number of organisations in which respondent is
active
13Whether all three best friends live within 8
Kilometres
Increasing with area deprivation
14Whether none of three best friends are employed
NB differences are not significant with
individual factors
15Meets with people at least once per week
NB generally increasing with area deprivation,
but non-linear effects
16Talks with neighbours at least once per week
NB clear non linear effects area differences
stronger after controlling for individual factors
17Mean value of neighbourhood affiliation score
No difference in area effects after controlling
for individual factors
18Summary on cross-sectional area effects
- Generally negative associations between social
capital measures and area deprivation, except for
measures related to close friendship networks
(bonding social capital) - Effects are mainly weaker, but still significant
after introducing individual characteristics, - But effect disappears for economically salient
friendship networks
19Residential mobility
- A range of reasons for being interested
- Migration can be related to positive career
returns, and can be an expression of positive
choice over housing and neighbourhood - Migration may disrupt social networks, and thus
harm social capital conversely strong social
capital may be disincentive to migration - Models of the probability of migration suggest it
is positively associated with income, social
class, and negatively associated with age - Relationship with area deprivation different for
all moves and longer distance only these
associations are attenuated with other individual
controls.
20Migration between 1998 and 2003 association with
initial area deprivation
Clear non-linear effect some increase in
migration risks from most deprived areas
21Influence of social capital measures on
residential mobility
- Non-significant for organisation membership,
trust (weakly significant on its own, disappears
with controls) - Simple positive association with meeting
regularly, which disappears with individual
controls - Measures related to area embeddedness have strong
negative association - Association also negative with whether no
employed people amongst close friends
22Influence of Social Capital measures on relative
odds of residential mobility
23Influence of residential mobility on change in
social capital measures
- Meeting people regularly substantial negative
distance effect - Talking to neighbours - no mover effect, negative
distance effect - Trust no mover or distance effect
- Organisation activity no mover or distance
effect - Neighbourhood affiliation weak mover effect and
small negative distance effect
24Association of change in area deprivation with
change in social capital, for movers only
- No effects for
- Meeting people
- talking to neighbours
- organization membership
- trust
- Strong effect for neighbourhood affiliation
score, similar in scale to cross-sectional
association - Asymetric effect - those who move to worse areas
are especially unlikely to experience substantial
reduction in neighbourhood affiliation need to
investigate whether this relates to degree of
choice over neighbourhood
25Summary on mobility analysis
- Area embeddedness significantly reduces mobility
prospects - Evidence on the disruption of social networks and
sociability - Neighbourhood affiliation is sensitive to
neighbourhood characteristics how far does it
also measure social capital - Some social capital measures (trust, organisation
activity), people appear to carry with them