Are Ghettos Good or Bad?

1997/08/01 by David Cutler, Edward L. Glaeser · 6 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Demographic economics #Econometrics #Economics #Endogeneity #Ethnic group #Housing Market and Economics #Law #Political science #Politics #Residence #School Choice and Performance #Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies #White (mutation)

paper · doi:10.1162/003355397555361

openalex publication_date 1997/08/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/11

Abstract

Spatial separation of racial and ethnic groups may theoretically have positive or negative effects on the economic performance of those groups. We examine the effects of segregation on outcomes for blacks in schooling, employment, and single parenthood. We find that blacks in more segregated areas have significantly worse outcomes than blacks in less segregated areas. We control for the endogeneity of location choice using instruments based on political factors, topographical features, and residence before adulthood. A one standard deviation decrease in segregation would eliminate one-third of the black-white differences in most of our outcomes.

Citations

• The Rise and Decline of the American Ghetto
• The Quarterly Journal of Economics

Cited by

• The Wrong Side(s) of the Tracks: The Causal Effects of Racial Segregation on Urban Poverty and Inequality
• Inequality is rising where social network segregation interacts with urban topology
• Ethnic Enclaves and Immigrant Labor Market Outcomes: Quasi‐Experimental Evidence
• New Evidence about Brown v. Board of Education: The Complex Effects of School Racial Composition on Achievement
• Segregation and labor discrimination in cities
• The Economic Aftermath of the 1960s Riots in American Cities: Evidence from Property Values
• Racial segregation in the United States [wikipedia]