Work

Was Postwar Suburbanization "White Flight"? Evidence from the Black Migration

Year: 2007

Type: report

Abstract: Residential segregation by jurisdiction generates disparities in public services and education.The distinctive American pattern -in which blacks live in cities and whites in suburbs -was enhanced by a large black migration from the rural South.I show that whites responded to this black influx by leaving cities and rule out an indirect effect on housing prices as a sole cause.I instrument for changes in black population by using local economic conditions to predict black migration from southern states and assigning predicted flows to northern cities according to established settlement patterns.The best causal estimates imply that each black arrival led to 2.7 white departures.

Source: National Bureau of Economic Research

DOI: 10.3386/w13543

Author: Leah Platt Boustan

Institutions: National Bureau of Economic Research, University of British Columbia, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Chicago, New York University, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, University of California, Berkeley

Language: English

Topic: Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Sustainable cities and communities

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Science Foundation, Harvard University

OpenAlex ID: W2892019189

Cites: 52

Cited by: 99

Related to: 10