Everybody needs good neighbours?

Posted by Steve Gibbons, LSE and SERC New neighbours have moved in to your street. Should you worry about the effect their children will have on yours? Will they be a good influence or bad? If you had read a lot of the past research on so called ‘neighbourhood effects’ you might be very worried. These studies often show a correlation between the kind of neighbours a child grows up with, and their subsequent behaviours and educational achievement. These findings have been very influential, for example in motivating policy to encourage mixed communities.