This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. Journal of Economic Literature
  4. September 2023
  5. Dividing Lines: Racial Segregation across Local Government Boundaries

Journal of Economic Literature

ISSN 0022-0515 (Print) | ISSN 2328-8175 (Online)

Dividing Lines: Racial Segregation across Local Government Boundaries

  • Tomás Monarrez
  • David Schönholzer
Journal of Economic Literature
vol. 61, no. 3, September 2023
(pp. 863–87)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

We describe the empirical relationship between local government boundaries and residential segregation in the United States. First, we study recent changes in the distribution of segregation within and between local governments in all metropolitan areas, using census block data on residential demographics over the period 1990–2020. We find that segregation across local government boundaries explains a substantial share of racial stratification, which has changed only little over the last thirty years. Next, we use spatial regression discontinuity methods to distinguish between household sorting due to neighborhood amenities and public goods provided by local governments. The prevalence of demographic discontinuities at local government boundaries suggest that between-jurisdiction segregation patterns cannot be explained solely by proximity to neighborhood amenities. We discuss implications for policy, showing that both between-jurisdiction segregation and jurisdictional discontinuities can partly explain the correlation between total segregation and racial gaps in educational outcomes.

Citation

Monarrez, Tomás, and David Schönholzer. 2023. "Dividing Lines: Racial Segregation across Local Government Boundaries." Journal of Economic Literature, 61 (3): 863–87. DOI: 10.1257/jel.20221703

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • H41 Public Goods
  • H75 State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions
  • I24 Education and Inequality
  • I26 Returns to Education
  • J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
  • R23 Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics