The Impact of Federal Housing Policies on Racial Inequality

该奖项是美国国家科学基金会社会、行为和经济科学博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划的一部分。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行为期两年的培训，并鼓励博士后进行独立研究。美国国家科学基金会寻求促进科学界各阶层的科学家，包括那些未被充分代表的群体的科学家，参与其研究项目和活动；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的一个重要的专业发展阶段。每个博士后必须解决各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在杜克大学（Duke University）威廉·达里蒂（William Darity, Jr.）博士的赞助下，这个博士后奖学金奖支持一位研究联邦住房政策对种族不平等影响的早期职业科学家。本研究项目的目标是通过研究歧视性住房政策所起的作用，促进我们对种族不平等根源的理解。研究新政（New Deal）住房政策对黑人和白人的影响，将检验一种说法，即把当今在住房所有权和财富方面的种族差异归咎于偏袒白人家庭的联邦计划。这项研究的发现有可能塑造我们对种族不平等的起源和持续的理解；这一现象通过其对政治话语、政府政策以及个人对公共政策的看法（包括刑事司法、税收、社会项目和公立学校财政）的影响，影响着所有美国人。为了解释黑人无处不在的劣势，一种新兴的说法指出，联邦政府的新政住房项目阻碍了黑人拥有住房，并促进了住宅隔离，从而加剧和固化了种族差异。这个项目的目的是通过将数据带入假说来质疑这种叙述。该研究计划包括使用1930年和1940年十年一次的人口普查的全部人口普查数据来估计联邦住房管理局（FHA）抵押担保计划对黑人和白人房屋所有权、房屋价值和社会经济地位的短期影响。第二个目标涉及使用1950年开始的人口普查数据样本来估计联邦住房管理局抵押贷款计划对这些相同结果的长期影响。一种新的工具变量策略将被用于在这个问题上获得因果杠杆，因为接受更高水平的联邦住房管理局贷款的县也可能由于不相关的原因表现出更高的种族差异。从国家档案馆收集的原始数据将在个人地址水平上阐明联邦住房管理局抵押贷款的地理分布，并提供联邦住房管理局抵押贷款接受者的描述性帐户。从1950年住房普查收集的数据将把我们可以衡量计划活动的时间延长十年。该项目旨在对一项重要的联邦计划进行首次全面的实证评估，该计划可能塑造了美国城市地区的种族地理。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. William Darity, Jr. at Duke University, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating the impact of federal housing policies on racial inequality. The goal of this research project is to advance our understanding of the root causes of racial inequality by examining the role played by discriminatory housing policies. Studying the impact of New Deal housing policies on blacks and whites will test a narrative attributing present-day racial disparities in home-ownership and wealth to federal programs that favored white households. The findings of this study have the potential to shape our understanding of the origins and persistence of racial inequality; a phenomenon that affects all Americans through its impact on political discourse, government policy, and individuals' views about public policies, including criminal justice, taxation, social programs and public school finance.To explain the ubiquity of black disadvantage, an emerging narrative points to the federal government's New Deal housing programs as culprits in exacerbating and congealing racial disparities by discouraging black home-ownership and promoting residential segregation. The objective of this project is to interrogate this narrative by bringing data to bear on its hypotheses. The research plan involves using full count census data from the 1930 and 1940 decennial censuses to estimate the short-term impact of the Federal Housing Administration's (FHA) mortgage guarantee program on black and white home-ownership, home values, and socioeconomic standing. A second objective involves using census data samples starting in 1950 to estimate the long-term impact of the FHA's mortgage program on these same outcomes. A novel instrumental variables strategy will be used to gain causal leverage on this question, as counties that receive higher levels of FHA lending may also exhibit elevated racial disparities for unrelated reasons. Original data collection from the National Archives will shed light on the geographic distribution of FHA mortgages at the level of individual addresses and present a descriptive account of FHA mortgage recipients. Data collection from the 1950 census of housing will extend the duration of time for which we can measure program activity by a decade. The project seeks to produce the first comprehensive empirical evaluation of an important federal program that has likely shaped the racial geography of urban areas across the US.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.