RUI: Racial Inequality and Residential Segregation

自1964年具有里程碑意义的《民权法》宣布就业和公共教育中的歧视为非法以来，几十年过去了，1968年的《公平住房法》将这些保护扩大到住房的销售和租赁。在此期间，教育程度和家庭收入方面的种族差距缩小了，种族态度发生了很大变化，出现了大量中产阶级非裔美国人。尽管如此，居住模式中的高度种族隔离仍然是城市景观的一个显著特征。本研究探讨了美国居住隔离的原因、后果和衡量标准。这项研究有三个不同的组成部分。首先是一个理论探索的方式，在收入分配的种族差异与偏好的邻里种族组成，以确定在大都市地区的隔离和分层模式的互动。这种复杂的关系正在通过分散的邻域排序模型的开发和分析进行研究。第二部分是调查种族隔离对种族不平等代际传递的影响。早期的研究结果表明，与属于同一收入阶层的白色家庭相比，黑人家庭的社区质量较差。该项目探讨了当前社区质量的种族差异如何影响未来教育程度和劳动力市场成功的差异。这些影响正在审查的背景下，考虑到知识和技能的家庭，学校和社区内的收购邻里排序模型。研究的第三个也是最后一个组成部分涉及隔离的测量。这涉及到使用一种将隔离措施分解为两个部分的方法。其中一个可以被解释为种族隔离的组成部分，可以归因于种族收入差距的影响，而另一个则是邻里偏好和歧视的综合影响。利用这一方法，正在利用社区一级按种族分列的收入分配数据，审查不同城市和不同时期在衡量的隔离的两个组成部分方面的差异。 研究结果将使我们能够解释某些城市种族隔离的持续存在，评估未来融合的前景，并评估融合政策的影响和潜在有效性。在种族收入差距缩小的情况下，种族隔离的持续存在使一些研究人员认为，种族态度仍然相当不容忍，或者说，真实的房地产和抵押贷款市场上的歧视仍然普遍存在。相反，这项研究将表明，即使在倾向于融合主义和歧视并不普遍的情况下，持续的高水平隔离与缩小收入差距是一致的。这是可能的，因为邻里种族偏好和种族隔离之间的关系以微妙的方式取决于种族内和种族间的收入差距。随着种族收入差距的缩小，种族隔离的城市按收入划分的阶层减少，因此融合的经济激励也减少了。这项研究还揭示了为什么黑人家庭的社区质量低于收入相当的白色家庭，以及为什么黑人家庭的收入相对于白色家庭低估了他们孩子未来的经济成功。这对采取无视种族的社会政策可以在多大程度上缩小收入和教育方面的种族差距产生了影响。最后，研究的实证部分将阐明1970年至2000年期间种族隔离的适度和不均衡下降在多大程度上主要归因于种族不平等的变化或其他因素的变化，例如所有群体的美国人生活在更融合的社区中的愿望增加。

Several decades have elapsed since the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination in employment and public education, and the 1968 Fair Housing Act extended these protections to the sale and rent of housing. Over this period racial disparities in educational attainment and household income have narrowed, racial attitudes have changed considerably, and a significant population of middle class African Americans has emerged. Despite this, a high degree of racial segregation in residential patterns remains a striking feature of the urban landscape. This research deals with the causes, consequences and measurement of residential segregation in the United States. The research has three distinct components. The first is a theoretical exploration of the manner in which racial disparities in the distribution of income interact with preferences over neighborhood racial composition to determine patterns of segregation and stratification in metropolitan areas. This complex relationship is being investigated through the development and analysis of models of decentralized neighborhood sorting. The second component is an investigation of the implications of segregation for the intergenerational transmission of racial inequality. Earlier findings suggest that black households experience poorer neighborhood quality in comparison with white households belonging to the same income class. The project explores the manner in which current racial disparities in neighborhood quality influence future disparities in educational attainment and labor market success. These effects are being examined in the context of models of neighborhood sorting which take into account the acquisition of knowledge and skills within families, schools, and communities. The third and final component of the research deals with the measurement of segregation. This involves the use of a method for the decomposition of segregation measures into two components. One of these can be interpreted as the component of segregation that can be attributed to the effect of racial income disparities alone, while the other captures the combined effect of neighborhood preferences and discrimination. Using this method, disaggregated data on income distributions by race at the neighborhood level is being used to examine variations across cities and over time in the two components of measured segregation. The research findings will allow us to account for the persistence of segregation in certain cities, assess the prospects for integration in the future, and evaluate the implications and potential effectiveness of integrationist policies. The persistence of segregation in the face of narrowing racial income disparities has led some researchers to argue that racial attitudes are still quite intolerant, or that discrimination in real estate and mortgage lending markets is still widespread. This research will demonstrate, in contrast, that persistently high levels of segregation are consistent with narrowing income disparities even when preferences are pro-integrationist and discrimination is not widespread. This is possible because the relationship between neighborhood racial preferences and segregation depends in subtle ways on both intraracial and interracial disparities in income. As racial income disparities narrow, segregated cities become less stratified by income and hence the economic incentives for integration are diminished. The research also sheds light on the reasons why black households experience lower neighborhood quality than white households of comparable incomes, and why the incomes of black households underpredict the future economic success of their children relative to white households. This has implications for the extent to which racial disparities in income and education can be diminished by the adoption of race-blind social policies. Finally, the empirical component of the research will shed light on the extent to which the modest and uneven declines in segregation over the period 1970 to 2000 can be attributed primarily to changes in racial inequality or to changes in other factors, such as an increased desire on the part of Americans of all groups to live in more integrated communities.