Location Matters: Unravelling the Spatial Dimensions of Neighborhood-Level Housing Quality in Kolkata, India

Ismail Haque , Jawaharlal Nehru University
Dipendra Nath Das, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Priyank Pravin Patel, Presidency University

Amidst increasing urbanization and rising socioeconomic inequality, the availability and accessibility of adequate, affordable and quality housing have become challenging in urban India. Despite numerous policy reforms, the implemented programs have mostly failed to deliver as envisaged due to a lack of continuity and interconnectedness between them, thereby precipitating a high level of housing poverty for a significant proportion of households. This study explores the plausible spatial dependencies and heterogeneities in the relationships between neighbourhood-level housing quality and its related demographic and socioeconomic parameters in the eastern Indian metropolis of Kolkata. A-spatial and spatial regression model based analyses reveal that the linkages between housing quality and its driving forces are not spatially invariant in terms of their strength, magnitude and direction across the cityscape at the neighbourhood-level, being governed by place-specific attributes. The importance of inculcating spatial dependence and heterogeneity analyses in similar research and policies is thus highlighted.

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 Presented in Session 8. Economy, Labor Force, Education, & Inequality