Full Citation
Title: Displacement and Infrastructure Provision: Evidence from the Interstate Highway System
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2024
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Abstract: This paper studies the consequences of displacement resulting from the construction of the Interstate Highway System in the United States. It starts by showing that the placement of urban highways was not random. Exploiting cross-sectional variation between neighborhoods in 1950, the last census before the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act, I show that tracts with a higher proportion of the city’s Black population were more prone to receive a highway, even after controlling for socio-demographic and geographic characteristics of the tract. Subsequently, the paper examines the impact on affected indi- viduals. By geocoding the full-count 1940 census and linking it to administrative mortality records, I track affected individuals before and after highway construction. Exploiting the quasi-random variation in close proximity to highway developments, I show that displaced individuals die at a younger age, exhibit a higher likelihood of relocating from their neighborhood, and lived in neighborhoods with lower socioeconomic characteristics at their time of death. Moreover, although more nuanced, individuals residing near a highway are also negatively impacted. The mortality results are explained by the relocation of individuals into neighborhoods with lower health outcomes. These effects show up in the aggregate. By running an event study design for neighborhoods between 1930 and 2020, I found that highway construction is associated with outmigration, explained by a relative decrease in the Black population. I also find that these effects spill over to adjacent neighborhoods, affecting the demographic dynamics of cities.
Url: https://pvalenzuelac.github.io/files/hwys_June2024.pdf
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Authors: Casasempere-Valenzuela, Pablo
Publisher: Economic History Association Cambridge University Press
Data Collections: IPUMS USA - Ancestry Full Count Data, IPUMS NHGIS
Topics: Fertility and Mortality, Land Use/Urban Organization
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