The Effects of Race and Socioeconomic Status on Residential Segregation in Texas, 1970-80

Abstract

The extent to which residential segregation results from differences in the socioeconomic status of raciallethnic groups remains a topic of debate. Although recent studies have argued that improvements in minority groups' socioeconomic status will lead to reduced residential segregation, such analyses have been crosssectional. This study uses longitudinal data from 27 central cities in Texas to examine the effects of 1970, 1980, and 1970-80 changes in socioeconomic status on Black-White, Anglo-Spanish, and Black-Spanish segregation. The findings indicate that socioeconomic factors are not significant determinants of raciallethnic segregation in these periods. Rather, age of city, population growth, and percent of the population of minority status appear to explain patterns of residential segregation. The search for explanations of racial and ethnic residential segregation has long been a major topic of interest to social scientists, particularly urban ecologists (Burgess; Duncan and Duncan, a; Farley; Lieberson; Lieberson and Carter; Marshall and Jiobu; Massey; Matre and Mindiola; Park; Roof et al.; Taeuber and Taeuber). Despite extensive research, however, many unanswered questions remain. Among the most sociologically significant of these are those related to the extent to which residential segregation is a function of socioeconomic status (SES) and whether segregation among different racial/ethnic groups may be differentially affected by SES. Specifically, definitive answers have not been developed to such questions as: *Address correspondence to Sean-Shong Hwang, Department of Rural Sociology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843. ? 1985 The University of North Carolina Press