2021/10/20 by Richard T. Melstrom, Rose Mohammadi · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Environmental Science · #Environmental Justice and Health Disparities #Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies #Urban Green Space and Health
paper · pdf · doi:10.3368/le.98.1.060520-0077r1
openalex publication_date 2021/10/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We examine whether moving behavior contributes to the correlation between race and pollution using a residential sorting model and data on neighborhood demographics in Chicago. We find that black residents are less likely to stay and thus more likely to be displaced compared with white residents in neighborhoods after brownfields are cleaned up, contributing to environmental gentrification. This provides evidence that race and pollution become increasingly correlated because of moving behavior, with people of color less likely to move toward cleaner neighborhoods. Cleaning up pollution without a policy that acknowledges residential mobility may thus fail to correct environmental injustice. (JEL Q53, Q58) 2 These data are publicly available at the City of Chicago's Department of Planning and Development (https:// www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dcd/suppinfo/community_ area2000censusprofiles.html) and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (https://datahub.cmap.illinois.gov/ dataset/2010-census-data-summarized-to-chicago-community-areas).