Full Citation

Title: The Emergence of Exclusionary Zoning Across American Cities

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2022

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Abstract: This paper identifies how changing postwar demographics in American cities caused their suburbs to adopt a form of land use control still widespread today-minimum lot sizes. I develop an algorithm detecting bunching on lot sizes, observable when govern-ments' lot size controls bind developers from building denser housing. Applying the algorithm to national assessor records, I estimate which lot size controls first came into effect and their impact on new homes over time for 7,000 local governments. Most suburbs adopted lot size controls from 1945-1970, the same period when four million Black Amer-icans left the South for opportunities in American cities. I then use the "Second Great Mi-gration" as a natural experiment that shifted central cities' racial composition toward Black Americans. From 1940-1970, the rise in central city Black composition in non-Southern central cities modestly accelerated minimum lot size adoption while further explaining binding density controls applied to at least 600,000 housing units. Migration of lower-income whites into the same cities yields null effects on suburban lot size outcomes. In states that passed early legislation to desegregate public schools, Black migration had the largest effects on lot size restrictiveness. Together, the results indicate that local governments designed land use controls to exclude Black migrants from neighborhoods and public goods.

Url: https://www.tom-cui.com/assets/pdfs/LotsEZ_Latest.pdf

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Authors: Cui, Tianfang

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS USA - Ancestry Full Count Data, IPUMS NHGIS

Topics: Land Use/Urban Organization, Race and Ethnicity

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