Rural America: Social Capital, Housing Affordability, Demographic Changes, and More

In this early-stage project, I am exploring a few topics related to social capital and housing affordability, with a focus on rural America. Other research has found that Americans are less and less likely to socialize with their neighbors, join community organizations, vote in local elections, attend religious services, or volunteer their time. The main part of the project studies the causes and consequences of individual-level social connections in rural towns, using new microdata containing millions of visits between neighbors' houses. The student researcher will work closely with me on both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the project. The qualitative work will include reading and summarizing existing research together. The quantitative work will involve constructing aggregate measures of social capital using visits between neighbors and evaluating how such measures vary across geographies, correlate with existing measures, and relate to key economic and social outcomes. A second stream of work for the project will summarize broader trends in housing affordability, homeownership rates, demographics, income, and other characteristics for rural versus urban areas.