UGOD Seminar | Neighborhood Composition and Cohesion on Well-being: Causal Evidence from a Quasi-experiment in Hong Kong
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Establishing a causal link between neighborhood characteristics and well-being is often hindered by residential self-selection. This talk synthesizes two studies that address this challenge by leveraging the random allocation of public housing in Hong Kong as a quasi-experiment. Utilizing HKPSSD and census data, we examine the impacts of both social and demographic neighborhood dimensions. The first study focuses on neighborhood composition, conceptually distinguishing between neighborhood mixing and SES. It reveals that the relationship between composition and life satisfaction is primarily driven by neighborhood SES improvement. The second study establishes a causal relationship between neighborhood cohesion and subjective well-being, identifying neighborhood satisfaction as a key mediator. Together, these findings provide robust evidence regarding the relationship between neighborhood features and well-being in the East Asian context, offering practical insights for policymakers to improve the quality of life for disadvantaged residents.
Yizhou Ye is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Administration at South China Normal University. His research interests include urban sociology, social stratification, child development, and survey methods, with a particular focus on the neighborhood effect in Chinese metropolises. He has played a primary role in implementing several large-scale urban surveys, including HKPSSD (Wave 5), Guangzhou Metropolitan Panel Survey, and HK-CHILD Study. His works have been published in Population, Space, and Place, Chinese Sociological Review, and Journal of Cities and Society.