Policy Afternoon explores how policy can tackle unequal neighbourhoods and unequal opportunities

The Policy Afternoon 'Unequal neighbourhoods, unequal chances: what can policy do?' will take place from 13:00 to 17:00 at the Erasmus Pavillion, Woudestein campus in Rotterdam. The event is free to attend and will combine academic research with practical policy perspectives.

What can policy do?

The afternoon will begin with three mini-lectures examining different aspects of neighbourhood inequality. Matthijs Korevaar (Erasmus School of Economics) will discuss how housing markets and housing policies, ranging from investor bans to new construction, influence who lives where and contribute to divides between neighbourhoods.

Sara Signorelli (Institut Polytechnique de Paris) will examine Denmark’s “Ghetto Plan”, exploring the consequences of officially designating disadvantaged neighbourhoods as problem areas.

Elisabeth Leduc (Erasmus School of Economics) will present research on the Rotterdam Act, a Dutch policy that restricted who could move into designated disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

The academic presentations will be followed by a roundtable discussion bringing together researchers, practitioners and policy-makers to consider which measures can reduce spatial disparities in economic opportunities – and what the evidence tells us about what works, and what does not.

The roundtable participants are Pieter de Jonge of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, Nanne Boonstra of the Municipality of Rotterdam, Ineke Mulder of Maaskoepel, Sara Signorelli, Matthijs Korevaar and Elisabeth Leduc. The discussion will be moderated by Anne Gielen of Erasmus School of Economics.