Beyond “Do neighbourhoods matter?
Investigating heterogeneous neighbourhood effects on youth development
PhD Thesis Defence

Laura Silva
Thursday, November 30th, Sciences Po

Jury:
Lidia Panico, Professeur des universités, Sciences Po, CNRS, CRIS
Haley McAvay, Lecturer, University of York
Mirna Safi, Full Professor, Sciences Po, CNRS, CRIS (supervisor)
Geoffrey Wodtke, Associate Professor, University of Chicago (rapporteur)
Fabrizio Bernardi, Catedratico , Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (rapporteur)
Felix Tropf, Associate Professor, University College London (UCL) and Purdue University

Neighbourhoods are meso-level social structures within which individuals live and develop and are therefore known to affect youth education-related outcomes. I try to better understand the specific conditions under which neighbourhood effects may take place and the specific underlying mechanisms.

In this PhD thesis, I investigate three research questions: Does neighbourhood deprivation shape the development of cognitive and non-cognitive skills and how does this vary by gender?
Is there a multigenerational neighbourhood effect on cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes ?
Do neighbourhood conditions interact with education-related genes in affecting education-related outcomes?

I provide answers building on the UK - National Child Development Study (NCDS) data, the ongoing 1958 cohort. I use a wide range of estimation methods to identify the effects of neighbourhoods on a large range of outcomes that relate to either the cognitive or the non-cognitive youth development dimensions.
In particular, I exploit the process of allocation of social housing in the UK in the 1970s as well as regression with residuals modelling to improve the causal estimation of neighbourhood effects.

This thesis shows that growing up in relatively disadvantaged areas negatively affects both cognitive and non-cognitive development. Neighbourhood deprivation particularly negatively affects girls, as compared to boys. Moreover, individual family histories of neighbourhood disadvantage have a lingering effect.
As for the interaction with genetic predispositions, I find that living in more advantaged neighbourhoods narrows the gap between individuals characterised by high and low genetic predispositions for academic motivation and achievement. This emphasises the compensating role that advantaged neighbourhoods might play in reducing social inequalities in education.
Overall, this thesis highlights the complex interplay between individual characteristics and neighbourhood environments in shaping the production and re-production of education inequalities. I emphasise the need for policies and interventions to create supportive and equitable neighbourhood environments.