Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: Public Policy, Residential Sorting, and the Creation of Segregated Spaces

(Housing and Community Development)

Although explicit discrimination in the housing market and race-based allocation of education resources have been illegal for almost a half century, segregation remains a defining aspect of American geography. In fact, some recent scholarship suggests inequality between places has widened in recent decades. Additionally, there is mounting evidence that where we live can have profound effects on educational, occupational, health, and a multitude of other outcomes. This panel brings together policy researchers studying neighborhood sorting decisions made by individuals and families, the policy environments that shape these choices, and the unintended consequences of these policies. The first paper in our panel investigates gentrification—a phenomenon of significant and growing interest to housing policy experts. Drawing upon a unique consumer credit database, the authors show bifurcated paths of residential mobility, which serve to exacerbate inequality over time: as a city gentrifies, disadvantaged individuals tend to move to declining neighborhoods, while advantaged individuals relocate to improving neighborhoods. The second paper examines the powerful role school district boundaries play in shaping segregation among children and adults. The author shows these policy-determined units interact with decisions made by families at different points in the life course, resulting in higher levels of segregation among children (and white children, in particular) than adults. The third paper builds on the second. Leveraging discrete choice analysis and data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this paper provides further evidence of the salience of both neighborhood and school racial makeup among mobile, white households—and white parents in particular. In aggregate, the behavior of white parents fortifies segregation and, in doing so, inflates property values and tax revenue in white districts. Finally, the fourth paper takes a historic perspective, investigating a time in which place, race, and the law intersected in particularly explicit ways. Between 1910 and 1920, numerous cities in the American South passed residential segregation ordinances to protect white neighborhoods (and property values). The authors document the spread of these policies and a troubling consequence of their passage: a significant increase of incidents of racialized violence against blacks. The inclusion of these four papers, each analyzing a different aspect of residential sorting, will provide policymakers with new insight into how racialized spatial boundaries are created and emphasized by government intervention and market forces. It will also shed light on unforeseen consequences of public policies and the role of space in maintaining inequality.