Working Paper: NBER ID: w31136
Authors: Peter Q. Blair
Abstract: When the fraction of minorities in a neighborhood exceeds the tipping point white flight accelerates. I develop a revealed-preference method to estimate the tipping points of 38,000 census tracts and the preferences of households for minority neighbors in the 123 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) covered by these census tracts over 40 years (1970-2010). I find that the average tipping point in an MSA initially covaries more with the racial attitudes of households than the outside options that they face but that this relationship reverses overtime. Ignoring outside options would obscure the declining role that racial attitudes play in understanding segregation.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: J60; R21; R23
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| arrival of new minority households (R23) | mean utility for white households (R29) |
| mean utility for white households (R29) | likelihood of exit (J63) |
| outside options (C79) | white flight (R23) |
| racial attitudes (J15) | tipping point (1970) (E32) |
| concentration of minorities (J15) | tipping point (1970) (E32) |
| racial attitudes (J15) | tipping point (2010) (F61) |
| outside options (C79) | tipping point (2010) (F61) |