Where you grow up matters. More than twenty-five years of research has culminated in a near consensus that the neighborhoods we live in shape our lives. These findings have been documented in over a dozen countries by multiple investigators using a wide range of empirical methods.

Today, we published a Letter in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) responding to a recent Op-Ed—also published in the WSJ—by James Heckman and Sadegh Eshaghnia, who argue that neighborhoods are not an important driver of children’s outcomes.

We agree that many factors, including family environments, matter for children’s outcomes. But we respectfully disagree with the view that neighborhoods are not one of those factors, as we explain in the WSJ Letter and a more detailed response by Professors Raj Chetty, Eric Chyn, Stefanie DeLuca, John Friedman, Nathaniel Hendren, Lawrence Katz, and Bruce Sacerdote.

We appreciate the opportunity to summarize and clarify the evidence on these issues.