RUI: Racial Inequality and Residential Segregation

Barnard College, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

Several decades have elapsed since the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination in employment and public education, and the 1968 Fair Housing Act extended these protections to the sale and rent of housing. Over this period racial disparities in educational attainment and household income have narrowed, racial attitudes have changed considerably, and a significant population of middle class African Americans has emerged. Despite this, a high degree of racial segregation in residential patterns remains a striking feature of the urban landscape. This research deals with the causes, consequences and measurement of residential segregation in the United States. The research has three distinct components. The first is a theoretical exploration of the manner in which racial disparities in the distribution of income interact with preferences over neighborhood racial composition to determine patterns of segregation and stratification in metropolitan areas. This complex relationship is being investigated through the development and analysis of models of decentralized neighborhood sorting. The second component is an investigation of the implications of segregation for the intergenerational transmission of racial inequality. Earlier findings suggest that black households experience poorer neighborhood quality in comparison with white households belonging to the same income class. The project explores the manner in which current racial disparities in neighborhood quality influence future disparities in educational attainment and labor market success. These effects are being examined in the context of models of neighborhood sorting which take into account the acquisition of knowledge and skills within families, schools, and communities. The third and final component of the research deals with the measurement of segregation. This involves the use of a method for the decomposition of segregation measures into two components. One of these can be interpreted as the component of segregation that can be attributed to the effect of racial income disparities alone, while the other captures the combined effect of neighborhood preferences and discrimination. Using this method, disaggregated data on income distributions by race at the neighborhood level is being used to examine variations across cities and over time in the two components of measured segregation. The research findings will allow us to account for the persistence of segregation in certain cities, assess the prospects for integration in the future, and evaluate the implications and potential effectiveness of integrationist policies. The persistence of segregation in the face of narrowing racial income disparities has led some researchers to argue that racial attitudes are still quite intolerant, or that discrimination in real estate and mortgage lending markets is still widespread. This research will demonstrate, in contrast, that persistently high levels of segregation are consistent with narrowing income disparities even when preferences are pro-integrationist and discrimination is not widespread. This is possible because the relationship between neighborhood racial preferences and segregation depends in subtle ways on both intraracial and interracial disparities in income. As racial income disparities narrow, segregated cities become less stratified by income and hence the economic incentives for integration are diminished. The research also sheds light on the reasons why black households experience lower neighborhood quality than white households of comparable incomes, and why the incomes of black households underpredict the future economic success of their children relative to white households. This has implications for the extent to which racial disparities in income and education can be diminished by the adoption of race-blind social policies. Finally, the empirical component of the research will shed light on the extent to which the modest and uneven declines in segregation over the period 1970 to 2000 can be attributed primarily to changes in racial inequality or to changes in other factors, such as an increased desire on the part of Americans of all groups to live in more integrated communities.