Should Policy Makers Strive for Neighborhood Social Mix? An Analysis of the Western European Evidence Base

The paper presents an analytical framework for elucidating the equity and social efficiency criteria that might be used to justify a housing policy aiming for a substantial mix of neighborhood residents by income, ethnicity and/or immigrant status. This framework permits the classification of multivariate statistical studies comprising the Western European evidence base and shows the importance of distinguishing intra- and extra-neighborhood processes when evaluating evidence related to the efficiency criterion. Evaluation of the evidence base in light of this framework reveals that it sufficiently supports a mixing policy aimed at avoiding concentrations of disadvantaged individuals if, and only if, policy makers emphasize equity grounds (i.e. improving the well-being of the disadvantaged absolutely). The evidence base does not support a mixing policy on efficiency grounds, regardless of whether intra-neighborhood social interactions or extra-neighborhood stigmatization/resource restrictions are presumed to be the primary causal mechanism for neighborhood effects.