Doctoral Dissertation Research: Dynamic Models of Race and Income Segregation

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

This dissertation develops an agent-based model that is grounded in real-world data on residential mobility and neighborhood change. It uses this model to examine how neighborhood sorting along one dimension, for instance race, may exacerbate inequalities along another dimension such as income segregation. The model captures the relationship between individuals' decisions about where to live and the process of neighborhood formation. The first part of the project analyzes the effects of neighborhood characteristics-especially their race/ethnic and economic makeup-on individuals' decisions about where to move. Next, using realistic computational models, the project will examine the implications of individual decisions for changes in patterns of racial and economic segregation. The simulations will reveal, for example, the extent to which the formation of high poverty neighborhoods may be due to the concentration of poverty among minority groups, and the tendency of minorities to live in racially segregated areas. This research makes three primary scientific contributions: (1) It advances past studies of residential segregation that do not explicitly model how neighborhood sorting along one dimension can magnify inequalities along another dimension. (2) It combines innovative data on residential mobility and neighborhood preferences with a model that takes account of the relationship between individuals' choices and neighborhood characteristics. (3) The research demonstrates how to analyze the interdependence of micro level phenomena (residential moves) and macro level phenomena (residential segregation) at both the theoretical and empirical level. By so doing, this project serves as a prototype for further contemporary and historical analyses of residential segregation throughout the United States. This research will have broader impacts beyond its specific scientific objectives. In focusing on racial and economic residential segregation, the project confronts one of the most enduring social problems in the United States. Segregation is a key source of persistent inequality, social disadvantage, and conflict. Understanding the processes that maintain and change it is a vital social issue. Additionally, this research will develop methods of analysis and empirical examples that can be used to bring rigorous simulation methods into social science curricula.