Equity
Racial Climate and Homeownership
Timothy Harris & Aaron Yelowitz
Journal of Housing Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
An important question aside from outright discrimination is whether poor underlying race relations in an area might create a chilling effect on homeownership for minorities. From 2012 onward, there were a series of high-profile events in the U.S. related to police brutality which highlighted racial tension. Using Google Trends, we characterize a locality's underlying racial climate based on search interest in these charged events. We use data from the American Community Survey prior to any of these flare-ups and show that the ownership decision for blacks is responsive to the racial climate; black homeownership in localities with the most charged racial climates is 5.6 percentage points lower than in the least charged racial climates based on a sample of movers.
Brokering Ties and Inequality: How White Real Estate Agents Recreate Advantage and Exclusion in Urban Housing Markets
Elizabeth Korver-Glenn
Social Currents, forthcoming
Abstract:
The real estate brokerage industry has long perpetuated overt discrimination against minority housing consumers, but we know little about how it may reproduce inequality through less overt means. In this article, I highlight real estate agents' (REAs) reliance on social networks as key to how this "new inequality" happens. Specifically, I investigate the contextual factors that enable white agents to maintain predominantly white networks and how disparate-impact consequences for minority home buyers and sellers emerge when white agents deploy their networks in ordinary housing situations. My examination relies on one year of ethnographic research with 10 REAs and 49 in-depth interviews with REAs, home buyers, and home sellers in the Houston housing market. I begin my analysis by documenting agents' racially stratified networks. I then unpack how agent pay structure and status as market gatekeepers supported the persistence of white agents' white networks and constrained minority agents' business opportunities. Finally, I show how white agents' reliance on white networks came together with other widely shared practices to negatively affect minority home buyers and sellers, excluding them from for-sale homes and competitive customer service. I conclude by discussing the implications of my findings for mitigating housing market inequality.
Migration, Immigration, and the Political Geography of American Cities
Jason Anastasopoulos
American Politics Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
How do migration and immigration shape the political geography of American cities? In this article, we propose a mechanism of partisan sorting and demographic change which is tested using the mass migration of African Americans from New Orleans to Houston, Texas in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. We argue that differences in residential choice preferences among partisans combined with demographic changes which increase diversity can induce sorting by triggering flight (migration) among ideological conservatives. Using Hurricane Katrina evacuee data from schools in Harris Country along with a variety of empirical tools, we find evidence suggesting that African American Hurricane Katrina migration led to Republican flight.
Tides and Prejudice: Racial Attitudes During Downturns in the United States 1979-2014
Arjun Jayadev & Robert Johnson
Review of Black Political Economy, December 2017, Pages 379-392
Abstract:
What happens to racial prejudice during economic downturns? This paper analyzes white attitudes towards African Americans in the United States at different points in a business cycle from 1979 to 2014. Using a number of indicators of hostility towards African Americans available from the General Social Survey we develop an indicator of racial prejudice. We combine this with data on unemployment from the Current Population Survey and find robust evidence that racial hostility as measured by our indicator of prejudice is counter cyclical and rises during periods of higher unemployment for whites. Specifically a one standard deviation in the unemployment rate being experienced by whites is associated with a .03 to.05 standard deviation increase in the discrimination index. This is of a magnitude comparable with one year less of education. We undertake a quantile regression to show that this effect is widespread across the distribution of prejudice and that apart from those with initially low levels of prejudice, increasing own group unemployment results in statistically significant increases of similar magnitude in prejudice across that distribution.
Second-Generation Outcomes of the Great Migration
Trent Alexander et al.
Demography, December 2017, Pages 2249-2271
Abstract:
The mass migration of African Americans out of the South during the first two-thirds of the twentieth century represents one of the most significant internal migration flows in U.S. history. Those undertaking the Great Migration left the South in search of a better life, and their move transformed the cultural, social, and political dynamics of African American life specifically and U.S. society more generally. Recent research offers conflicting evidence regarding the migrants' success in translating their geographic mobility into economic mobility. Due in part to the lack of a large body of longitudinal data, almost all studies of the Great Migration have focused on the migrants themselves, usually over short periods of their working lives. Using longitudinally linked census data, we take a broader view, investigating the long-term economic and social effects of the Great Migration on the migrants' children. Our results reveal modest but statistically significant advantages in education, income, and poverty status for the African American children of the Great Migration relative to the children of southerners who remained in the South. In contrast, second-generation white migrants experienced few benefits from migrating relative to southern or northern stayers.
Death in the Promised Land: The Great Migration and Black Infant Mortality
Katherine Eriksson & Gregory Niemesh
University of California Working Paper, December 2016
Abstract:
The Great Black Migration from the rural South to the urban North in the first half of the 20th century drastically lowered the health environment of infants. We show that migrating to northern cities increased the likelihood that an infant born to a migrant would die in the first year of life. We find no evidence that differences are driven by migrant selection. Much of this gap is due to residential location in unhealthy neighborhoods within northern cities. Our paper adds to the literature on the costs and benefits of the Great Migration.
Substantive Black Political Representation: Evidence from Matching Estimates in the United States House of Representatives
Nolan Kopkin
Review of Black Political Economy, December 2017, Pages 203-232
Abstract:
I seek to determine whether race is a factor in how black representatives vote in the United States House of Representatives; if so, this suggests electing more black representatives may improve the economic and political position of blacks if policy positions taken by black representatives on bills that fail to pass would provide tangible positive impacts to members of the black community if passed. Confounding the impact of legislator race, districts represented by blacks on average are quite different than those represented by whites. While past research on this topic uses linear regression techniques with undesirable properties, I improve on past research using matching techniques with more desirable properties. Utilizing a combination of Mahalanobis and propensity score matching, within-caliper matching, and exact matching using data from the 100th-113th Congress, I show black representatives are more likely to vote in agreement with the majority of the Congressional Black Caucus on all votes and on Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Americans for Democratic Action, and Congressional Quarterly key votes, indicating a substantive racial impact on roll-call voting.
No experience required: Violent crime and anticipated, vicarious, and experienced racial discrimination
Daniel Herda & Bill McCarthy
Social Science Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
There is a growing body of evidence linking racial discrimination and juvenile crime, and a number of theories explain this relationship. In this study, we draw on one popular approach, Agnew's general strain theory, and extend prior research by moving from a focus on experienced discrimination to consider two other forms, anticipated and vicarious discrimination. Using data on black, white, and Hispanic youth, from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN), we find that experienced, anticipated, and to a lesser extent, vicarious discrimination, significantly predict violent crime independent of a set of neighborhood, parental, and individual level controls, including prior violent offending. Additional analyses on the specific contexts of discrimination reveal that violence is associated with the anticipation of police discrimination. The effects tend to be larger for African American than Hispanic youth, but the differences are not statistically significant. These findings support the thesis that, like other strains, discrimination may not have to be experienced directly to influence offending.
Single Moms and Deadbeat Dads: The Role of Earnings, Marriage Market Conditions, and Preference Heterogeneity
Andrew Beauchamp et al.
International Economic Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
Why do some men father children outside of marriage without providing support? Why do some women have children outside of marriage when they receive little support from fathers? Why is this behavior more common among blacks than whites? We estimate a dynamic equilibrium model of marriage, employment, fertility, and child support decisions. We consider the extent to which low earnings, marriage market conditions, and preference heterogeneity explain non-marital childbearing, deadbeat fatherhood, and racial differences in these outcomes. We find the black-white earnings gap and preference heterogeneity explain a substantial portion of racial differences, while marriage market conditions are less important.
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Prison Admissions Across Counties: An Evaluation of Racial/Ethnic Threat, Socioeconomic Inequality, and Political Climate Explanations
Katherine Durante
Race and Justice, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous macro-level studies of racial and ethnic disparities in prison admissions have focused narrowly on differences in offending and have limited their analyses to national- and state-level data. This study explores three alternative explanations for inequality in prison admissions for Blacks and Latinos compared to Whites: racial/ethnic threat, socioeconomic inequality, and the political and legal climate. I analyze data from multiple county- and state-level sources and employ hierarchical linear modeling techniques to examine the role of both county- and state-level factors in producing inequality in county-level prison admission rates. Findings indicate that Black-White disparities are lower in jurisdictions with greater shares of Black citizens; however, the reverse is true for Latino-White inequality. For both comparisons, political conservatism is associated with less inequality. Results also indicate that counties with greater parity in income and employment across race/ethnicity and that are located in the South have reduced racial/ethnic disparities in prison admissions. I argue that the presence of large shares of African Americans and of Republican voters, in addition to southern location, are likely better indicators of total prison admission rates than of racial/ethnic disparities in prison admissions.
Updating the Racial Wealth Gap
Jeffrey Thompson & Gustavo Suarez
Federal Reserve Working Paper, November 2017
Abstract:
Using newly available data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, this paper updates and extends the literature exploring the racial wealth gap. We examine several hypotheses proposed by previous researchers, including the importance of inherited wealth and other family support and that of trends in local real estate markets, and also extend the literature by exploring the gap across the distribution of wealth and simultaneously considering white, African American and Hispanic households. The findings indicate that observable factors account for all of wealth gap between white and Hispanic households and most of the gap between white and black families - more than in most previous research - but a substantial unexplained portion remains. Wealth differences between black and white families are completely due to different asset holdings, while wealth differences between black and Hispanic families are mostly a result of different debt holdings. Home ownership and educational attainment are the single largest observable factors that account for the racial wealth gaps, with income and financial assistance from family members playing important roles as well. The unexplained portion of the wealth gap between white and non-white families is greater at the top of the wealth distribution.
Racial Discrimination, Racial Socialization, and Crime over Time: A Social Schematic Theory Model
Callie Burt, Man Kit Lei & Ronald Simons
Criminology, November 2017, Pages 938-979
Abstract:
Recent studies evince that interpersonal racial discrimination (IRD) increases the risk of crime among African Americans and familial racial socialization fosters resilience to discrimination's criminogenic effects. Yet, studies have focused on the short-term effects of IRD and racial socialization largely among adolescents. In this study, we seek to advance knowledge by elucidating how racialized experiences - in interactions and socialization - influence crime for African Americans over time. Elaborating Simons and Burt's (2011) social schematic theory, we trace the effects of childhood IRD and familial racial socialization on adult offending through cognitive and social pathways and their interplay. We test this life-course SST model using data from the FACHS, a multisite study of Black youth and their families from ages 10 to 25. Consistent with the model, analyses reveal that the criminogenic consequences of childhood IRD are mediated cognitively by a criminogenic knowledge structure and socially through the nature of social relationships in concert with ongoing offending and discrimination experiences. Specifically, by increasing criminogenic cognitive schemas, IRD decreases embeddedness in supportive romantic, educational, and employment relations, which influence social schemas and later crime. Consonant with expectations, the findings also indicate that racial socialization provides enduring resilience by both compensating for and buffering discrimination's criminogenic effects.
Are Central Cities Poor and Non-White?
Jenny Schuetz et al.
Journal of Housing Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
For much of the 20th century, America's central cities were viewed as synonymous with economic and social hardship, and often used as proxy for low-income communities of color. Since the 1990s, however, many metropolitan areas have seen a resurgence of interest in central city neighborhoods. Theoretical models of income sorting lead to ambiguous predictions about where households of different income levels will live within metropolitan areas. In this paper, we explore intra-city spatial patterns of income and race for U.S. metropolitan areas, focusing particularly on the locations of low-income and minority neighborhoods. Results indicate that, on average, neighborhood income increases with distance to city centers for blacks, Hispanics and Asians. Income among non-Hispanic whites is uncorrelated with distance to CBD. All MSAs exhibit spatial clustering of poor and non-white neighborhoods. Economic sorting within high-minority neighborhoods is apparent for all racial groups.
An Unexpectedly Complex Architecture for Skin Pigmentation in Africans
Alicia Martin et al.
Cell, 30 November 2017, Pages 1340-1353
Abstract:
Approximately 15 genes have been directly associated with skin pigmentation variation in humans, leading to its characterization as a relatively simple trait. However, by assembling a global survey of quantitative skin pigmentation phenotypes, we demonstrate that pigmentation is more complex than previously assumed, with genetic architecture varying by latitude. We investigate polygenicity in the KhoeSan populations indigenous to southern Africa who have considerably lighter skin than equatorial Africans. We demonstrate that skin pigmentation is highly heritable, but known pigmentation loci explain only a small fraction of the variance. Rather, baseline skin pigmentation is a complex, polygenic trait in the KhoeSan. Despite this, we identify canonical and non-canonical skin pigmentation loci, including near SLC24A5, TYRP1, SMARCA2/VLDLR, and SNX13, using a genome-wide association approach complemented by targeted resequencing. By considering diverse, under-studied African populations, we show how the architecture of skin pigmentation can vary across humans subject to different local evolutionary pressures.