Friday 28th May -- "He came from the wrong side of the tracks"

This Friday, Jason will introduce a discussion on the effects of local environment on socioeconomic outcomes, and associated public policy. We often think about the influence of personal characteristics such as race, gender and family income on individuals' socioeconomic outcomes -- just how important is location among these? For instance, if someone from a 'bad neighbourhood' was moved with their family at birth to a nearby 'good neighbourhood', but kept the same income status, same parents, same race and same gender, how much difference would this make to their life outcomes?

• The mean streets of Philadelphia -- disadvantages of race or place?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYLepQQNQCU
• Meng mu san qian?http://www.cctv.com/program/cultureexpress/20090429/102379_1.shtml

And if location has these influences (because of factors such as peer effects and variation in local economic opportunities), does this justify public policy intervention? In what form? Could this even be one the most effective ways of combating inequality?

• Should governments bring the poor alongside the rich?http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23837804-residents-legal-threat-over-chelsea-barracks.do
• Or the rich alongside the poor?http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/davehillblog/video/2009/oct/09/housing-london-tory-social

As usual we meet on Friday at 6pm in STICERD common area.