Full Citation

Title: Racial segregation in the United States since the Great Depression: A dynamic segregation approach

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2018

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Abstract: Racial segregation is a salient feature of cities in the United States. Models like Schelling (1971) show thatsegregation can arise through white preferences for residing near minorities. Once the threshold or “tippingpoint” is passed, the models predict that all whites will leave. Our paper uses census-tract data for six cities in theUnited States from the 1930s and 1970–2010 to measure decadal, city-specific tipping points. We use a struc-tural break procedure to estimate the tipping points and incorporate these in a regression-discontinuity design toestimate the impact on population trends for neighborhoods that exceed that threshold while controlling for city-specific trends in migration. We find that the magnitude of white flight for neighborhoods that have tipped in2000 has fallen to between 23% and 36% of the level seen in 1970. There was no discontinuity in white flightafter accounting for migration trends during the Great Depression. Finally, we show that in-migration ofminorities in tipped neighborhoods do not fill in the gap left by white flight.

Url: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1051137718300676

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Authors: Suardi, Sandy; Marsiglio, Simone

Periodical (Full): Journal of Housing Economics

Issue:

Volume: 40

Pages: 95-116

Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS

Topics: Race and Ethnicity

Countries: United States