Exploring the value of Understanding Society for neighbourhood effects analyses

Summary

Related data set “Understanding Society: Waves 1-6, 2009-2015” with DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-6614-7 in repository “UK Data Service”.Understanding Society is a large representative household panel study for the UK. The study follows the same 40,000 households over time, beginning in 2009 and providing a detailed picture of how people’s lives are changing. One of the many innovative features of Understanding Society is that a great deal of information about neighbourhoods can be used alongside the individual and household-level information collected in the study, making it a useful study for neighbourhood effects analyses. In this paper we explore four Understanding Society data products, based on four different types of rural-urban neighbourhood classifications, to throw light on how much heterogeneity in neighbourhood contexts is captured in the first waves of Understanding Society, including change in neighbourhood contexts.