Does Neighbourhood Origin Matter? A Longitudinal Multilevel Assessment of Neighbourhood Effects on Income and Receipt of Social Assistance in a Stockholm Birth Cohort

Abstract

In order to assist decision‐making about the balance between area‐based policies and wider forms of intervention, this paper considers the potential strength of neighbourhood effects on two key welfare outcomes in a Stockholm birth cohort at a time when Swedish welfare policy ambitions were at a peak. Extensive longitudinal multilevel analyses indicate that prior place of residence accounts for only a small proportion of the variation in cohort members' subsequent income and receipt of social assistance. One plausible explanation for this is the success of Swedish comprehensive welfare policies. The only modest impact of the neighbourhood effect seems plausible in a society with relatively far‐reaching equality of social and economic opportunities. The observed non‐effects of neighbourhood composition in this study support the idea of a universal welfare policy that aims at combating social and economic inequality wherever people may live rather than the use of small area‐targeted interventions.