Work

Flight from Urban Blight: Lead Poisoning, Crime, and Suburbanization

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: In this paper we study the effect of violent crime on residential and firms location decisions and their implications for segregation in cities. We do so by proposing a new instrument to exogenously predict violent crime in city centers. We base our instrument on chemical and medical evidence that links local characteristics of the soil to lead poisoning and aggression. We show that the increase in violent crime between 1960 and 1990 due to lead poisoning moved almost 8 million people to the suburbs. Firms followed by leaving the city centers. We then show that the suburbanization process was characterized by “white flight.”

Source: The Review of Economics and Statistics

DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01323

Authors: Federico Curci, Federico Masera

Institutions: CUNEF Universidad, UNSW Sydney

Language: English

Topic: Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Sustainable cities and communities, Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W2902211588