This study (which is a proposal at present) aims to explore the use of data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) to compare the expenditure patterns of urban and rural and different types of rural households. The link to the ‘network’ idea is via the impact of travel costs on rural household budgets. An econometric analysis will allow an assessment to be made of the influence of ‘rurality’ on expenditure patterns at different points in the overall income distribution. It is expected to add detail to the evidence base on housing affordability and travel expenditure for different types of households in different rural circumstances.
Continuing and Other Work
In addition to the above, the Centre for Longitudinal Studies will continue work on the rural analysis of the major national longitudinal surveys. This will include extension of the rural encoding procedure to the British Cohort Development Study and the National Child Development Study (1958 cohort) and will conduct the initial analyses prior to specification of research objectives with Defra. Work on the Millennium Cohort Study will be extended to a special study of market towns and analysis will be undertaken on the 2006 update to analyse social development and migration streams related to work travel.
Additional projects to be undertaken at RERC/Birkbeck include a social and economic typology of rural areas, the exploratory construction of an indicator of ‘remoteness’ to sit alongside the various levels of the new rural definition, a large scale study of access to services in rural areas using road distances and travel times and, potentially in collaboration with English Heritage, an assemblage of the data necessary to an analysis of the relationship between the heritage of market towns and the social and economic position of rural and market towns.