Working Paper: NBER ID: w13543
Authors: Leah Platt Boustan
Abstract: Residential segregation by jurisdiction generates disparities in public services and education. The distinctive American pattern - in which blacks live in cities and whites in suburbs - was enhanced by a large black migration from the rural South. I show that whites responded to this black influx by leaving cities and rule out an indirect effect on housing prices as a sole cause. I instrument for changes in black population by using local economic conditions to predict black migration from southern states and assigning predicted flows to northern cities according to established settlement patterns. The best causal estimates imply that each black arrival led to 2.7 white departures.
Keywords: Suburbanization; White Flight; Black Migration
JEL Codes: J61; N12; R23
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Black migration (J61) | White departures (J63) |
| Higher black migration (R23) | Increase in white outmigration (R23) |
| Black migration (J61) | Decline in urban populations (R23) |
| Decline in size of remaining white households (R23) | Decline in white population (J11) |
| Black arrivals (J15) | Urban flight (R23) |