Effects Of Racial Segregation Research Articles

Effects of Racial Segregation on Economic Productivity in U.S. Cities

Effects of Racial Segregation on Economic Productivity in U.S. Cities

The Effects of Racial Segregation on Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence from Historical Railroad Placement

The Effects of Racial Segregation on Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence from Historical Railroad Placement

The relationship between Jim Crow laws and social capital from 1997-2014: A 3-level multilevel hierarchical analysis across time, county and state.

Jim Crow laws in the United States promoted racial prejudice, which may have reduced social capital. Our study tests the relationship between Jim Crow laws and social capital. We conducted 3-level multilevel hierarchical modeling to study differences in the stock of social capital for 1997, 2005, 2009 in Jim Crow states compared to states without Jim Crow laws. We examined the moderation effects of county level median income, percent Black and percent with high school education and Jim Crow laws on social capital. Jim Crow laws significantly reduced stock of social capital across 1997, 2005, 2009. The model was robust to the inclusion of random county, states, time and fixed county and state level covariates for median income, percent Black and percent with high school education. The largest percent of between state variations explained for fixed variables was from the addition of Jim Crow laws with 2.86%. These results demonstrate that although Jim Crow laws were abolished in 1965, the effects of racial segregation appear to persist through lower social connectiveness, community and trust. A positive moderation effect was seen for median income and percent Black with Jim Crow laws on social capital. Our study supports a negative association between Jim Crow laws and reduction in the stock of social capital. This may be attributed to the fracturing of trust, reciprocity and collective action produced by legal racial segregation. Findings from this study offer insight on the potential impacts of historical policies on the social structure of a community. Future research is necessary to further identify the mechanistic pathways and develop interventions to improve social capital.

Segregation and mortality over time and space

Few studies have been able to measure the evolution of segregation on health disparities or assess whether those disparities existed in rural communities prior to the Great Migration of African Americans to urban centers. We use a newly developed measure of historical racial residential segregation based on individual-level data. The measure exploits complete census manuscript files to identify the races of next-door neighbors. This measure is the first and only measure of historical segregation for rural communities, allowing us to greatly extend the empirical analysis of the effects of racial segregation on health over space and time. Using this comprehensive measure of racial residential segregation, we estimate the historical relationship between racial segregation and mortality. We find that conditional on racial composition, racially segregated environments had higher mortality rates and it was not always the case that the outcomes for blacks were worse than those of whites. These effects of segregation on health differed between urban and rural locations. We conclude by noting how comprehensive measures of segregation can extend the analysis of structural factors in racial health disparities to rural residents and to the historical evolution of health disparities.

Detroit's Regional Question

Could metro dynamics, which have long eroded Detroit's economy, have changed so drastically that they now might help stabilize it? Advocates of the new regionalism contend that increasing economic interdependence within metro areas has boosted the propensity for metro scale mobilizations to address troubles of city and suburb alike. I use the case of Detroit to examine the nature of metro economic relationships and novel episodes of metro regionalism. I find the continued effect of racial segregation, in combination with other factors, has caused Detroit blacks to be more vulnerable to recent declines in manufacturing and to be less likely to benefit from recent knowledge economy investments. New forms of metro regionalism are unlikely to economically stabilize less advantaged households or municipalities in the Detroit area, but may be creating frameworks that enable more progressive mobilizations by Detroit CBOs.

Are Ghettos Good or Bad? Evidence from U.S. Internal Migration

It is difficult to determine whether ghettos are good or bad, partly because racial segregation may have some effects that are unobservable. To overcome this challenge, we present a migration choice model that allows for estimating the overall effects of racial segregation. The key idea underlying our empirical approach is that if segregation indeed has a negative overall effect, migrants should be willing to give up some earnings to avoid living in segregated cities. Using decennial census data from 1980 to 2000, we provide new evidence that ghettos are bad. It is shown that both black and white migrants prefer to live in less segregated cities. For example, for a one-percentage-point reduction in the dissimilarity index, the estimated marginal willingness to pay of blacks is $436 (in 1999 dollars) in 2000. Among whites, this marginal willingness to pay is $301.

Metropolitan Segregation and the Subprime Lending Crisis

Unsustainable high-cost lending was a major contributor to one of the worst financial crises in U.S. history. While several studies examine individual- and community-level predictors of high-cost lending, little research has tested for the possible causal effect of racial segregation. Using two-stage least squares statistical models, we find evidence that even after controlling for percentage minority, poverty, unemployment, low credit scores, home value escalation, and bank branch accessibility, black/white segregation is a significant predictor of the proportion of subprime loans originated in the largest 200 U.S. metropolitan areas. We also find that increased black education levels are important protective factors, while greater shares of mortgages originated by independent mortgage companies increase the risk for subprime lending. We find no evidence for an effect of Hispanic/white segregation on subprime lending. This research suggests that policy initiatives aimed at limiting high-cost lending should address the context of black/white segregation, education, and financial reform.

The Effects of Racial Segregation on Trust and Volunteering in US Cities

A large body of recent research claims that racial diversity hinders the general trust of others, but these studies rarely consider how racial segregation mediates diversity. This article re-examines the issue by considering how the residential isolation of minorities alters general trust and one manifestation of trust: volunteering in cities. Using data from the US, the results from a regression analysis suggest that metropolitan-level racial segregation decreases trust and volunteering. Diversity has no significant effect. The results are robust to a variety of specifications and assumptions. The use of historical metropolitan and state characteristics improves the fit between segregation and distrust, and political affiliation is explored as a potential link between group distrust and general distrust. High levels of trust have been identified as a source of good governance and economic performance; integration is likely to enhance these attributes regardless of the level of diversity.

Public School Administration and Brown v. Board of Education

This article reviews educational initiatives of state and federal government that were designed to remedy the effects of racial segregation on Black public school students in the United States after the famous Brown v. Board of Education decisions. Several policy and legal initiatives are reviewed, including school desegregation, compensatory education, decentralization, school reform and restructuring, school finance litigation, state accountability models, school district takeovers, vouchers, charter schools, No Child Left Behind, and privatization.

Social Stratification in the New/Old South: The Influences of Racial Segregation on Social Class in the Deep South

ABSTRACT The Deep South has often been characterized as the poorest and most backward region in the United States. The Deep South is also unique in that it is the most racially diverse part of the United States and it has the powerful social history of chattel slavery. In this paper, we examine the relationship between race and poverty at the macro (rather than individual) level. Using county-level census data we examine the effects of social segregation on well-being. We find that indeed there is an extremely strong and significant relationship between the racial composition of a county and many measures of well-being (poverty, home ownership, educational attainment, infant mortality and so on). Second, our analysis tests for the effects of racial segregation for whites and African Americans separately. The poverty rate for whites varies little based on the racial composition of the county they live in whereas for African Americans, living in integrated or predominately white counties is significantly correlated with lower levels of poverty. Furthermore, the African American-white poverty gap is significantly lower in integrated and predominately white counties and significantly higher in counties that are racially segregated. Thus, our analysis demonstrates that racial segregation has a more negative and profound effect on the lives of African Americans than it does on whites. We conclude with a discussion of the illustration Hurricane Katrina provides of this general pattern and we offer a set of suggestions for addressing this kind of structural poverty.

Taking stock: the status of criminological theory

Criminology is in a period of much theoretical ferment. Older theories have been revitalized, and newer theories have been set forth. The very richness of our thinking about crime, however, leads to questions about the relative merits of these competing paradigms. Accordingly, in this volume advocates of prominent theories are asked to take stock of their perspectives. Their challenge is to assess the empirical status of their theory and to map out future directions for theoretical development. The volume begins with an assessment of three perspectives that have long been at the core of criminology: social learning theory, control theory, and strain theory. Drawing on these traditions, two major contemporary macro-level theories of crime have emerged and are here reviewed: institutional-anomie theory and collective efficacy theory. Critical criminology has yielded diverse contributions discussed in essays on feminist theories, radical criminology, peacemaking criminology, and the effects of racial segregation. The volume includes chapters examining Moffitt's insights on life-course persistent/adolescent-limited anti-social behavior and Sampson and Laub's life-course theory of crime. In addition, David Farrington provides a comprehensive assessment of the adequacy of the leading developmental and life-course theories of crime. Finally, Taking Stock presents essays that review the status of perspectives that have direct implications for the use of criminological knowledge to control crime. Taken together, these chapters provide a comprehensive update of the field's leading theories of crime. The volume will be of interest to criminological scholars and will be ideal for classroom use in courses reviewing contemporary theories of criminal behavior.

Wage Gap Analysis in Context of Aggregate Labor Market Influences

The aim of this paper is to find underlying labor market trends and structures in the black/white wage gap in U.S. metropolitan areas (MSA). Contrary to the predictions of the traditional human capital model, this paper hypothesizes that the unexplained racial wage gap can be attributed in part to structural traits of the individual labor market, rather than discrimination per say. This study finds that access to social networks and in particular faith-based associations can improve the black/white wage differential. The effects of racial segregation in the MSA's labor market are two-fold: Generally speaking, racial segregation will increase earnings disparities. Secondly, the existence of a secondary, minority-dominated labor market within an ethnic enclave may act as a buffer, decreasing the racial wage gap through minority-owned businesses paying non-discriminatory wages. The study also found that differences in the quality of education and disparities in racial unemployment seemed to contribute little to the racial wage gap.

MORLAND ET AL. RESPOND

We are encouraged that other researchers have been investigating the health impacts associated with the availability of food stores. It is unfortunate, although not surprising, that the absence of commercial food institutions in low-income, minority neighborhoods is an international concern. Documenting the structural effects of racial segregation on the well-being of residents is paramount in determining the extent to which racial isolation of Black Americans over the past decades constrains individual change. Understanding the mechanisms involved in dietary choices requires theory and analysis that address the interactions of cultural factors, food costs, individual income and education, dietary habits, and availability of foods. Factors influencing diet, from agriculture to advertising, from the local food environment to choices at the shelf, are historical, not fixed. Certainly, further quantitative research is needed to better understand the ways in which environmental contexts affect health, and the approaches Cummins suggests will be key in this regard. However, at a time when expanding economic inequalities and residential segregation threaten to further degrade the “foodscape” of low-income, minority communities, there are already strong theoretical and empirical grounds to expect that food environments offering both affordable and healthy choices are increasingly critical to these communities.

Dissonance Theory and Receptivity To Structural Perceptions of the Causes of Urban Crime

ECENT research has established a close relationship between perceptions of political reality and attitudes toward public policy.l This nexus is of crucial significance for advocates of policy change since policy attitudes may be altered more effectively through the path of perceptual change rather than through attempts to change the value premises upon which attitudes rest. Tacit recognition of the critical relationship between perception and policy position is manifest in the informational and educational emphasis frequently encountered in the arguments of those who advocate changes in the existing policies of the status quo. In recent foreign policy debates this tendency has probably been most pronounced in the efforts of opponents of the Vietnam War to increase public awareness of the magnitude and futility of the destruction engendered by American involvement in Southeast Asia.2 Within the realm of domestic policy, efforts to alter perceptions have long been present in the arguments of those urging fundamental alteration of public policies in the field of race relations. Perceptual evidence formed the core of the argument of the appellants in Brown v. Board of Education, whose brief emphasized the destructive effects of racial segregation on the selfimage of black children.3 More recently, those urging the adoption of public policies for the improvement of black life in America have sought to heighten white awareness of both the existence of racial discrimination and the circumscribing effect of that discrimination upon the black experience. Numerous writers such as Lee Rainwater, Grier and Cobb, and Kenneth Clark have produced compelling descriptions of the harsh limitations imposed upon blacks by white society,4 while others such as James Baldwin, Eldridge