2000115-Strengthening-Communities-with-Neighborhood-Data

342 Strengthening Communities with Neighborhood Data
characteristics affect what neighborhood is selected when an individual
moves; (2) the neighborhood selected can subsequently affect
some individual behaviors; (3) those behaviors, in turn, affect whether
that individual remains in the current neighborhood and, if not, what
different neighborhood will be selected; and (4) failure to recognize
these interrelationships leads to biased statistical estimates both of
neighborhood effects and determinants of mobility. The upshot of
their arguments is that both residential mobility and neighborhood
effects literatures would be enriched by a more holistic, unifying
approach.
In this essay we build on this foregoing work to extend and illustrate
such a holistic view in conceptual and empirical terms. We first advance a
synthetic model that delineates the numerous interconnections between
neighborhood conditions, neighborhood effects, and residential mobility.
We then provide overviews of the salient elements of the neighborhood
effects and the residential mobility literatures from the United
States and Western Europe, focusing on evidence related to the mutually
causal interconnections between them specified in our model. We proceed
to explain why a more holistic view is crucially needed to advance
the statistical modeling efforts within both literatures, focusing on avoidance
of geographic selection and endogeneity biases. Next we review the
scant literature that has taken important preliminary steps in this holistic
direction. Finally, we conclude and suggest challenges for cutting-edge
research related to neighborhood change, effects, and mobility.
A Holistic View of Neighborhood, Neighborhood
Effects, and Residential Mobility
Our thesis in this essay can be introduced succinctly through seven
generic equations (or, perhaps more accurately, shorthand sentences)
that delineate in simplified fashion the complex causal interrelationships
among what the neighborhood is, what effects it may have on its residents
in aggregate, and how its residential composition may change in
aggregate through in- and out-mobility processes. For brevity of notation,
let j represent an indicator designating a particular individual and
n represent the neighborhood in which the individual resides during
time period t. Endogenous elements to the system (i.e., aspects that are
mutually causal during period t) are italicized for emphasis. The nota-