Working Paper: NBER ID: w10493
Authors: William J. Collins; Robert A. Margo
Abstract: In the 1960s numerous cities in the United States experienced violent, race-related civil disturbances. Although social scientists have long studied the causes of the riots, the consequences have received much less attention. This paper examines census data from 1950 to 1980 to measure the riots' impact on the value of central-city residential property, and especially on black-owned property. Both ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares estimates indicate that the riots depressed the median value of black-owned property between 1960 and 1970, with little or no rebound in the 1970s. Analysis of household-level data suggests that the racial gap in the value of property widened in riot-afflicted cities during the 1970s.
Keywords: riots; property values; black-owned property; urban economics; racial disparities
JEL Codes: R0; N92; J15
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Riot severity (D74) | Property value depreciation (H82) |
| Riot severity (D74) | Property values in the 1970s (R21) |
| Riots (D74) | Racial gap in property values (R23) |
| Riot severity (D74) | Property values (R33) |