The neighborhoods and communities in which we grow up and live affect our future life outcomes. Yet the push for policymakers to address neighborhood disparities in health and economic outcomes has generally been slow even as economic inequality continues to worsen.

The accumulating evidence connecting neighborhood disadvantages and intergenerational mobility—coupled with the additional economic hardship exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic—suggests a need for greater and more sustained public investments in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Such investments could address economic disparities in communities and pave the way for better outcomes for their residents in the future and for more sustainable future economic growth.

A working paper published earlier this year, “No Man is an Island: The Impact of Neighborhood Disadvantage,” offers some further insights on the influence of neighborhoods on the health outcomes of individuals in disadvantaged neighborhoods, compared to people in more affluent ones. This research studies whether neighborhood disadvantage and economic stress have a negative effect on life expectancy in disadvantaged communities.

The six co-authors not only answer this question affirmatively, but also develop a model that can help pinpoint how neighborhood disadvantage and economic stress go hand-in-hand for all the residents in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Let’s look at their model.

The results of their study suggest that neighborhood disadvantage and economic stress increased the overall hazard of dying by 9.8 percent, after controlling for individuals’ socioeconomic and health status. So, even for a population that tends to be more affluent, there are significant harmful impacts of living in a disadvantaged neighborhood.

As policymakers look to improve community outcomes coming out of the coronavirus recession and amid the current economic recovery, it’s important to consider how to define “neighborhoods,” so that policies expand the equality of opportunity regardless of where one lives.

Read the full article about neighborhoods and health disparities by Patrick Edwards at Equitable Growth.