Racial Residential Segregation: Measurement and Trends

美国城市中存在的种族居住隔离意味着黑人往往无法获得白人享有的学校、公园和其他机会。 一些人认为，居住隔离和大都市中黑人与白人的地理隔离导致了下层阶级的出现，以及收入，教育和单亲方面的种族差异。 研究人员利用十年一次的人口普查，这是关于居住隔离的唯一信息来源，为了解这种形式的种族和民族不平等的原因和后果做了大量工作。 该项目利用2000年人口普查中关于种族和族裔群体分布的数据，将这类研究扩展到城市街区。 它产生了三篇论文的基础上计算多个指标的居住隔离的美国城市。 一个描述了2000年的隔离水平及其相关因素。 另一个项目探索和测量新种族类别对隔离分析的影响，第三个项目测试自1980年以来隔离变化的假设。该项目的研究结果描述了2000年美国大都市种族居住隔离水平的基线信息，新的多种族人口普查问题如何混淆隔离的测量，以及居住隔离在最近的过去是如何改变的。 此外，分析测试几个假设在文献中，通过研究如何水平和变化的城市规模，住房存量，少数民族人口的规模，少数群体的经济地位，和行业就业影响隔离。 研究结果对住房和歧视政策以及种族不平等和城市变化理论具有重要意义。

The existence of racial residential segregation in United States cities means that blacks often lack the access to schools, parks, and other opportunities enjoyed by whites. Some argue that residential segregation and the geographical isolation of blacks from whites in large metropolises has contributed to the emergence of an underclass, and to racial differences in earnings, schooling, and single parenting. Using the decennial censuses, the only source of information about residential segregation, researchers have done much to understand the causes and consequences of this form of racial and ethnic inequality. This project extends such research using data on the distribution of racial and ethnic groups down to the city block from the 2000 Census. It produces three papers based on computing multiple indices of residential segregation for American cities. One describes segregation levels in 2000 and their correlates. Another explores and measures the implications of the new race categories for the analysis of segregation, and a third tests hypotheses about changes in segregation since 1980.The findings from this project describe baseline information about the levels of racial residential segregation in American metropolises in 2000, how the new multi-race census question confounds the measurement of segregation, and how residential segregation has changed in the recent past. Moreover, the analysis tests several hypotheses in the literature by examining how levels and changes in city size, housing stock, size of minority populations, economic status of minority groups, and industry employment affect segregation. The results have important implications for housing and discrimination policies, and for theories of racial inequality and urban change.