How population structure shapes neighborhood segregation

Abstract

This study provides a framework for understanding how population composition conditions the relationship between individuals' choices about group affiliation and aggregate patterns of social separation or integration. The substantive focus is the role of income inequality in racial residential segregation. The author identifies three population parameters--between-group inequality, within-group inequality, and relative group size--that determine how income inequality between race groups affects racial segregation. She uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to estimate models of individual-level residential mobility and incorporates these estimates into agent-based models. She then simulates segregation dynamics under alternative assumptions about (1) the relative size of minority groups and (2) the degree of correlation between race and income among individuals. The author finds that income inequality can have offsetting effects at the high and low ends of the income distribution. She demonstrates the empirical relevance of the simulation results using fixed-effects, metro-level regressions applied to 1980-2000 U.S. census data.

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Figure 1. Joint Distribution of Neighborhood Median Income and Neighborhood Proportion Black, All Metro Area Census block groups in 2000

Figure 2. Stylized Patterns of Between- and Within-Race Income Inequality

Figure 3. Probability of Choosing a Housing Unit by Monthly Housing Costs

Figure 4. Probability of Choosing a Housing Unit by Neighborhood Median Income

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Probability of Choosing a Housing Unit by Neighborhood Racial Composition

Figure 6. Average Neighborhood Proportion Black Experienced by Blacks Under Alternative Between- and Within-Race Inequality Regimes [H=High between race inequality; M=Moderate between race inequality; N=No between race inequality]

Figure 7. Average Neighborhood Median Income Experienced by Blacks & Whites Under Alternative Between-Race Inequality Regimes, Within Race Gini Index = 0.55 [H=High between race inequality; M=Moderate between race inequality; N=No between race inequality]

Figure 8. Neighborhood Outcomes for Low, Middle, and High Income Blacks

Figure 9. Relationship Between Gini Index (WRI) and Ratio of Black Median Income to White Median Income (BRI) [markers scaled to total size of population]

Figure 10. Predicted Relationship between Between-Race Income Inequality and Neighborhood Composition by Metro Percent Black, U.S. Census Data 1980-2000