This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. ASSA Annual Meeting
  3. 2022
  4. Preliminary Program
  5. New Evidence on the Determinants of Neighborhood Segregation and Inequality
« Back to Results

New Evidence on the Determinants of Neighborhood Segregation and Inequality

Paper Session

Friday, Jan. 7, 2022 3:45 PM - 5:45 PM (EST)

Hosted By: American Economic Association
  • Chair: Leah Brooks, George Washington University

Housing Market Channels of Segregation

Nicholas Li
,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Abstract

This paper quantitatively decomposes forces driving racial segregation in major U.S. cities in 1940. It estimates models of neighborhood demand for White and Black families, identifying preferences over price and racial composition using exogenous inflows of White and Black rural migrants to different neighborhoods. The results confirm that White families had a high willingness to pay to avoid Black neighbors. However, an analysis of cities' segregated equilibria finds that implicit or explicit constraints on Black families' choices explain about half of neighborhood racial segregation observed in 1940. The early constraints on Black households' neighborhood choices drive the persistence in segregation across cities between 1960–2010.

The Effect of School Redistricting on Housing Markets

Tomas Monarrez
,
Urban Institute
David Schönholzer
,
Stockholm University

Abstract

Public school quality, as proxied by average student test scores, is closely linked to real estate prices and residential sorting patterns. At the same time, school boards make changes to school attendance boundary maps often, which may have sizable impacts on housing market equilibrium. This study will leverage a national level panel dataset of attendance boundary maps and data on individual house prices to generate event study-based estimates of the average effect of school redistricting on housing markets. We will document the impact of different types of redistricting: (1) changes that move homes from low to high test score schools (and vice versa), and (2) changes that lead to greater (lower) interaction with historically underserved groups. We will also present estimates of the mean impact of redistricting on community demographics, based on the American Community Survey.

Measuring Preferences for Local Public Goods

David Schönholzer
,
Stockholm University

Abstract

Local governments shape many fundamental aspects of life, such as access to education, safety, community, and neighborhood quality. But whether households value access to local governments directly or rather indirectly through access to certain neighborhoods remains unclear. This paper uses a sample of 1.4 million homes in thousands of neighborhoods that straddle local government boundaries to isolate local government valuation. We find that, first, households value access to specific local governments even when comparing homes in different governments on opposite sides of the same street. Second, racial composition changes discontinuously even at this very narrow scale, implying segregation across local governments within neighborhoods. Third, estimated valuations for individual local governments are correlated with the overall racial composition of the local government as well as the quality of schools and police departments, but not as strongly as with household income away from the boundary.

What Determines the Success of Housing Mobility Programs?

Dionissi Aliprantis
,
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland
Hal Martin
,
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland
Kristen Tauber
,
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

Abstract

This paper studies how design features influence the success of Housing Mobility Programs (HMPs) in reducing racial segregation. Targeting neighborhoods based on previous residents' outcomes does not allow for targeting race-specific outcomes, generates uncertainty when targeting income-specific outcomes, and generates bias in ranking neighborhoods' effects. Moreover, targeting opportunity bargains based on previous residents' outcomes selects tracts with large disagreements in current and previous residents' outcomes, with such disagreements predicted by sorting since 1990. HMP success is aided by the ability to port vouchers across jurisdictions, access to cars, and relaxing supply constraints, perhaps by targeting lower-ranked neighborhoods.

Discussant(s)
Patrick Bayer
,
Duke University
Sarah Reber
,
University of California-Los Angeles
JEL Classifications
  • R2 - Household Analysis
  • J1 - Demographic Economics