RUI: Racial Inequality and Residential Segregation

自1964年里程碑式的《民权法案》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。在这段时间里，受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，出现了相当数量的中产阶级非裔美国人。尽管如此，居住模式中高度的种族隔离仍然是城市景观的一个显著特征。这项研究涉及美国住宅隔离的原因、后果和测量方法。这项研究有三个截然不同的组成部分。首先是对收入分配中的种族不平等与对邻居种族构成的偏好相互作用的方式的理论探索，以确定大都市地区的隔离和分层模式。这种复杂的关系正在通过开发和分析分散的邻里排序模型来研究。第二部分是关于种族隔离对种族不平等代际传播的影响的调查。早些时候的研究结果表明，与属于相同收入阶层的白人家庭相比，黑人家庭体验到的社区质量更差。该项目探讨了当前社区质量方面的种族差异如何影响未来教育程度和劳动力市场成功方面的差异。在考虑到家庭、学校和社区内获得知识和技能的邻里分类模型的背景下，对这些影响进行了审查。这项研究的第三个也是最后一个部分涉及隔离的测量。这涉及到使用一种将隔离措施分解成两部分的方法。其中一个可以被解释为种族隔离的组成部分，可以单独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。使用这种方法，正在使用社区一级按种族划分的收入分配的分类数据，以检查不同城市之间以及随着时间的推移，衡量的隔离的两个组成部分的变化。研究结果将使我们能够解释某些城市持续存在的隔离现象，评估未来一体化的前景，并评估一体化政策的影响和潜在有效性。面对缩小的种族收入差距，种族隔离的持续存在导致一些研究人员认为，种族态度仍然相当不宽容，或者房地产和抵押贷款市场上的歧视仍然普遍存在。相反，这项研究将证明，持续的高水平隔离与缩小收入差距是一致的，即使偏好是支持融合的，歧视并不普遍。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，种族隔离的城市变得不那么按收入分层，因此对融合的经济激励也就减弱了。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人家庭，以及为什么黑人家庭的收入低估了他们孩子相对于白人家庭未来的经济成功。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，这项研究的经验部分将阐明1970年至2000年期间种族隔离适度和不均衡的下降在多大程度上可以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更愿意生活在更一体化的社区中。

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.