Income Inequality and Residential Segregation in European Cities

Tiit Tammaru,Sako Musterd,Anastasia Sinitsyna,Maarten Van Ham,Alireza Akhavizadegan,Szymon Marcińczak

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-74544-8_3

Abstract

AbstractBasedonextensiveresearchwithdistinguished scholars within the book project ‘Socioeconomic Segregation in European Capital Cities’, this chapter summarizes the key trends in income inequalityand socioeconomic segregationin Europe. We draw our data from the two last census rounds, and we focus on the most common indicators of incomeinequality(Gini Index) and residential segregation(DissimilarityIndex). We find that levels of residential segregation grew between the two last censuses in most of the cities included in our study. Changes in residential segregation follow changes in income inequality with a time lag, and it tends to happen in both directions. Low levels of income inequality relate to low levels of segregation after 10 years, and high levels of inequality relate to high levels of segregation after 10 years.

Highlights

Income inequality has long been a feature of most societies and segregation has long been a feature of cities (Nightingale 2012; Tammaru et al 2020)
Low income and spatial clustering of vulnerable population groups may lead to the vicious circle of segregation, across generations, as social and spatial disadvantage is passed from parents to children
Three important messages arise from the analysis of the changes in income inequality in Europe since 1990s: (a) there has been a growth in income inequality; (b) the increase was especially rapid during the 1990s and (c) the formerly clear differences between the East and West became increasingly blurred

Summary

Introduction

Income inequality has long been a feature of most societies and segregation has long been a feature of cities (Nightingale 2012; Tammaru et al 2020). Very high levels of income inequality and high levels of residential segregation are important policy concerns since they may bring negative consequences for cities and people, ranging from a lack of opportunities, constraints on social mobility, poverty, the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage and even social unrest (Galster et al 2015; van Ham et al 2018). Vulnerable population groups, such as low-income households and ethnic minorities, tend to concentrate in the poorest neighbourhoods in the case of modest public interventions, for example through various interventions that stem from social policy and housing policy (Scarpa 2016). We do not focus on the potential reverse relationship: i.e. the potential for segregation to cause income inequality to increase (Cutler and Glaeser 1997)

Link Between Income Inequality and Residential Segregation

Data and Methods

Changes in the Level of Income Inequality

Levels and Changes in Residential Segregation

Conclusions and Future Research Avenues