Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

While numerous studies have investigated whether racial segregation is negatively associated with housing, income and educational outcomes of black and Hispanic households, there has been lack of research that explores how racial segregation affects white households. How racial segregation influences whites is an important question when designing and implementing public policy to promote social equity across race and ethnic groups. If racial segregation has negative or no impact on the well-being of whites, then advocating policies to reduce segregation will be less controversial since it is clearly a Pareto superior policy. If, however, racial segregation is associated with positive outcomes of whites, then economic rationales alone may be insufficient to persuade whites to embrace desegregation.

Using the data from the Decennial Census and the American Community Survey, this is the first study to investigate empirically how racial segregation is related to housing, income and educational outcomes of white households. The results will draw new insights about the externalities associated with racial segregation and therefore about policies that could leave whites better off in a more residentially integrated society.