Does Place Determine Destiny? How "Neighborhood Mechanisms" Mediate Food Vendor Success in Nang Loeng, Bangkok

Abstract

“Neighborhood effects” research has rarely probed how geography influences job success among self-employed individuals in emerging markets. This article explores why two different sub-populations of food vendors in the Nang Loeng neighborhood of Bangkok experience divergent outcomes, using the causal frame of “neighborhood mechanisms.” Ultimately, geographically based differences in social exchanges,
location choices, and regulatory enforcement matter. Specifically, vendors suffer economically where social exchange is non-reciprocal, where location choice is
non-economic, and where regulation is variable and volatile. The spatial landscape, then, has an important place in economic development literature.