2011/04/01 by Elizabeth Ananat · 2 citations
Social Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Mathematics · #Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies #School Choice and Performance #Housing Market and Economics #Poverty #Inequality #White (mutation) #Causality (physics) #Metropolitan area #Population #Race (biology) #Demographic economics #Instrumental variable #Econometrics #Economics #Geography #Demography #Sociology #Economic growth #Mathematics #Biology
paper · doi:10.1257/app.3.2.34
openalex publication_date 2011/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/11
A striking negative correlation exists between an area's residential racial segregation and its population characteristics, but it is recognized that this relationship may not be causal. I present a novel test of causality from segregation to population characteristics by exploiting the arrangements of railroad tracks in the nineteenth century to isolate plausibly exogenous variation in areas' susceptibility to segregation. I show that this variation satisfies the requirements for a valid instrument. Instrumental variables estimates demonstrate that segregation increases metropolitan rates of black poverty and overall black-white income disparities, while decreasing rates of white poverty and inequality within the white population. (JEL I32, J15, N31, N32, N91, N92, R23)