Mark Fossett

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at Texas A&M University

Higher rates of black mortality compared to whites in the United States are longstanding and well documented. Wide variation across racial and socioeconomic groups suggests that many deaths may be preventable. We hypothesize that higher mortality for African Americans is due to the fundamental causes of structural racism and poverty. We developed a...

Objective: We seek to establish the direct quantitative link between micro- and macrolevels of segregation for White-Latino, White-Asian, and White-Black metropolitan segregation using new methods for segregation analysis and test prevailing frameworks in segregation research that emphasize spatial assimilation and place stratification dynamics. Me...

The Minneapolis–St. Paul Metropolitan Area has a rapidly growing foreign-born population in part due to its high levels of refugee reception and migrants drawn to the burgeoning high-tech and manufacturing industries. As a result, the Twin Cities are unique in that every major racial group has a sizable foreign-born segment with a wide range of U.S...

The spectacular growth of urban areas and the rise of large scale urban systems are prominent features of the contemporary spatial distribution of population.

This study examines White-Latino residential segregation in six U.S. metropolitan areas using new methods to draw a connection between two dominant research traditions in the segregation literature and empirically analyze prevailing conceptual frameworks. Based on microlevel locational attainment analyses, we find that for Latinos, acculturation an...

In this study I have shown that popular measures of residential segregation – the dissimilarity index (D), the gini index (G), the separation index (S), Theil’s index (H), and Hutchens’ index (R), a measure closely related to Atkinson’s index (A) – can be cast as group differences of means on residential outcomes (y) scored from area group proporti...

The previous chapter documents that the separation index (S) can reveal the presence of important aspects of residential segregation that cannot be reliably established by examining the more widely used dissimilarity index (D). Specifically, S reliably indicates whether groups are separated and live apart from each other in different areas of the c...

The previous chapter notes that popular indices of uneven distribution can be expressed in a variety of mathematically equivalent ways. The discussion there (and in Appendices) reviews a variety of formulas presented previously in the literature. It also introduces a set of new formulas that cast indices of uneven distribution as group differences...

The difference of means formulations of indices of uneven distribution makes it relatively straightforward to implement segregation measurement in either conventional aspatial formulations or in spatial formulations. Aspatial versions of segregation indices are familiar because they are widely used in empirical studies. They are obtained by applyin...

The literature on residential segregation is one of the oldest empirical research traditions in sociology and has long been a core topic in the study of social stratification and inequality as well as in the study of the demography of spatial population distribution. This literature is guided by the fundamental assumption that group differences in...

In this chapter I review the implementation of the difference of means framework for calculating indices of uneven distribution for five indices: the delta or dissimilarity index (D), the gini index (G), the separation index (S), the Theil entropy index (H), and the Hutchens square root index (R). For each index I introduce the relevant scoring sys...

In this chapter I introduce a new approach for addressing the problem of index bias at the point of measurement. Specifically, I introduce new formulations of popular indices of uneven distribution that are free of bias and take expected values of zero when individuals and households are randomly assigned to residential locations. I accomplish this...

In the previous chapter I outlined the rationale for unbiased versions of indices of uneven distribution. Additionally, I presented results from analysis of expected group residential distributions under a binomial probability model to establish that the unbiased versions of popular indices have expected values of zero when residential distribution...

The new options for segregation analysis introduced here suggest a new basis for evaluating segregation indices – the substantive relevance of the individual-level residential outcomes registered by the indices. Three of the segregation indices considered here – G, D, and S – have been used widely in empirical analyses for more than five decades an...

The values of all popular indices of uneven distribution can be obtained using a variety of mathematically equivalent computing formulas. For a given index some formulas are more familiar and widely used than others, but no single formula can be declared sacred or best for all purposes. The many alternatives can be confusing to those who are new to...

Casting segregation indices in the difference of means framework provides a valuable option previously not available to researchers. It enables them to seamlessly connect macro-level segregation – as measured by the index score for a city – to micro-level processes of residential attainment. At the simplest level the value of any index placed in th...

My goal in this chapter is to help interested readers become more familiar with the residential outcomes for individuals and households that give rise to different indices of uneven distribution. To do so, I review the residential outcome scores that underlie segregation comparisons in the difference of means formulation looking in detailed at the...

In this chapter I present analyses that document various aspects of the empirical relationships among the segregation indices examined in this study. I document both situations where the indices consistently agree and also situations where they often disagree. I then offer observations on what may be learned from considering these two situations. I...

The residential outcomes that give rise to segregation index scores can be assessed in terms of whether they, and by implication the indices that rest on them, are relevant for investigating different theories of segregation dynamics. In the final analysis, theories of segregation must reckon with the micro-level dynamics that produce the residenti...

In Chap. 6 I documented that displacement (D) and separation (S) routinely diverge by large amounts in some empirical analyses. Then in Chap. 7 I provided technical discussions to clarify how D and S can vary independently. I also stressed that the combination of high-D, low-S – which occurs when displacement from uneven distribution is dispersed r...

Standard versions of indices of uneven distribution take their minimum value of zero only under the condition of exact even distribution. Most segregation researchers and consumers of segregation studies are habituated to accepting this benchmark for social integration. On reflection, however, it is an unusual point of reference for assessing segre...

The previous chapter established that the difference of means framework for measuring segregation makes it possible to investigate segregation in a single city using individual-level models of residential attainment. The discussion in this chapter reviews how this approach can be extended to investigate ecological (i.e., aggregate-level) variation...

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license. This book introduces new methods for measuring and analyzing residential segregation. It begins by placing all popular segregation indices in the “difference of group means” framework wherein index scores can be obtained as simple differences of group means on individual-level residential atta...

This study examines the residential outcomes of Latinos in major metropolitan areas using new methods to connect micro-level analyses of residential attainments to overall patterns of segregation in the metropolitan area. Drawing on new formulations of standard measures of evenness, we conduct micro-level multivariate analyses using the restricted-...

This paper considers the potential for using agent models to explore theories of residential segregation in urban areas. Results of generative experiments conducted using an agent-based simulation of segregation dynamics document that varying a small number of model parameters representing constructs from urban-ecological theories of segregation ca...

Abstract This paper assesses the effects of the community sex ratio on black family formation and family structure in nonmetropolitan parishes in Louisiana. As predicted, the sex ratio is found to have strong positive effects on marriage prevalence for black women, the prevalence of husband and wife families for black families, and the percentage o...

This paper investigates the effects of city size, shape, and form, and neighborhood size and shape in agent-based models of residential segregation. We find that, in many key respects, model-generated segregation outcomes are not influenced in important ways by variation in these factors. For example, the expression of segregation based on agent pr...

Ethnic residential segregation is common in urban areas and is especially pronounced in metropolitan areas of the US. Many factors contribute to these residential patterns. The potential role of ethnic preferences has received increasing attention in recent years, but the development of theoretical models has been limited in many respects. This stu...

A recent article [Vinkovic D, Kirman A (2006) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103:19261–19265] showing that the Schelling model has a physical analogue extends our understanding of the model. However, prior research has already outlined a mathematical basis for the Schelling model and simulations based on it have already enhanced our understanding of the so...

In July 2006, President Bush signed the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, following heated congressional debates concerning the relevance and efficacy of the Act. Given the reauthorization, with few revisions, of the Act's preexisting provisions, we examine in this article whether its provisions have been effective in curtailing dis...

All agree that many factors contribute to ethnic segregation, but controversy continues regarding the relevance of particular factors. In my paper I acknowledge the importance of discrimination, but I direct attention to the role of ethnic preferences and social distance dynamics. I do so because many dismiss the relevance of these factors for cont...

In this paper 1 consider theories of residential segregation that emphasize social distance and ethnic preference dynamics. I argue that these theories are more compelling than many critics have supposed, and 1 conclude that they deserve to be considered more carefully. 1 then use simulation methodology to assess the potential impact of social dist...

We investigate the impact of preferences for co-ethnic contact on residential segregation and find support for the Schelling hypothesis that modest preferences can have significant consequences for segregation under certain conditions. Our findings temper and in some instances contradict Laurie and Jaggi's claim that expanding 'vision', the size of...

The phenomenon of statistical discrimination may take on increasing importance in the future as “traditional” prejudice-based discrimination slowly fades. This article considers how statistical discrimination compares with perspectives on discrimination in sociology, economics, and law. Statistical discrimination fits well with mainstream perspecti...

The spatial distribution of populations has long been a central focus of demographic inquiry. Structured patterns in spatial distribution are evident from the highest levels of macrospatial scale (e.g., global, national, and regional urban systems) to ‘‘fine-grained’’ patterns in metropolitan areas (e.g., central cities, suburbs, neighborhoods, and...

Objective. This paper assesses white responses to public school desegregation in the U.S. nonmetro South. Methods. Using census data, we examined trends in white public school enrollment from 1960 to 1990 for a random sample of southern nonmetro counties and also for a comparison sample of nonsouthern counties. Results. In the southern sample, we f...

Many studies have reported increasing equality in occupation and income attainments for employed white and African-American men in the United States since 1940 (e.g., Siegel 1967; Johnson and Sell 1978; Fossett, Galle, and Kelly 1986; Farley 1985; National Research Council 1989; Farley and Allen 1987; Smith and Welch 1984, 1986).2 One should view t...

Ethnic differentiation and inequality have been central concerns in human ecological theory and research since inception of the field. Leading figures in “classical” ecology considered race and ethnic issues at length and made many significant contributions to the study of racial and ethnic relations (e.g., Burgess 1928; Cressey 1938; McKenzie [193...

"We predict that marriage prevalence and husbands' education for Black women [in the United States] vary directly with mate availability. We also predict that marriage prevalence and husbands' education will be lower for Black women with less than a high school education than for other Black women. We test these predictions using data on marriage a...

This study is the first to examine long-term trends in male–female status inequality. Male–female status inequality is measured by the difference in mean status between men and women on Nam–Powers–Terrie SES scores. Overall, we found evidence of much greater inequality than indicated by previous studies in the status attainment literature. Results...

We examine structural determinants of African American marriage and family formation for a sample of nonmetropolitan counties in the U.S. South over three decades. As predicted, higher sex ratios are associated with a higher prevalence of marriage for women, a higher prevalence of husband-wife families, higher percentages of children living in husb...

We investigate the spatial mismatch hypothesis by analyzing detailed data on the spatial distributions of jobs and populations in Boston and Houston. Job potential measures calculated using data from the Urban Transportation Planning Package indicate that, on average, blacks are physically near more jobs than whites are. This finding holds despite...

This article investigates employment inequality between 25–59-year-old white and black men in U.S. metropolitan areas in 1980. Greater inequality in employment is observed in the Northeast and Midwest than in the South and West. Regression analysis shows that area variation in employment inequality is closely associated with variation in unionizati...

Census and vital statistics data for U.S. metropolitan areas in 1980 were analyzed to investigate the effects of mate availability, men's and women's levels of socioeconomic status and employment, level of public assistance, population size, and region on several aspects of family formation and family structure among African Americans. As predicted...

This article addresses conceptual, methodological, and practical issues that arise in the investigation of the effect of the sex ratio on marriage and family formation in comparative research. Using census data for the black populations of U.S. metropolitan areas, the study examines the relationships of several measures of the sex ratio to each oth...

This article examines racial occupational inequality in southern metropolitan areas over the forty-year period beginning in 1940 and ending in 1980. Remarkable stability in inequality between blacks and whites is observed between 1940 and 1970, followed by a substantial decline in inequality between 1970 and 1980. Additionally, the relationship bet...

We analyze a theoretical model of racial occupational inequality using alternative boundary definitions for southern metropolitan areas. These include both “fixed” and “decade-specific” metropolitan boundary definitions. The findings show remarkable consistency among the statistical results across the two types of definitions. Our analysis suggests...

Aggregate occupational inequality between white and black men declined at the national level in each decade between 1940 and 1980. In the 1940s and 1950s, these reductions were produced by the movement of the black population out of the South and into other regions and did not reflect improvements in relative opportunities for blacks within regions...

Aggregate occupational inequality between white and black men declined at the national level in each decade between 1940 and 1980. In the 1940s and 1950s, these reductions zinre produced by the movement of the black population out of the South and info other regions and did not reflect improvements in relative opportunities for blacks within region...

We investigate structural determinants of occupational differences between white men and women by examining variation in measures of segregation and inequality for a sample of Southern nonmetropolitan areas. The independent variables considered include unemployment rates, community growth, size of community, degree of urbanization, female represent...

A large literature spanning some 35 years investigates variation in racial socioeconomic inequality across communities. A widely accepted hypothesis in this tradition holds that this variation is determined in large part by intercommunity variation in race differences in education. Strong positive correlations between educational inequality and soc...

We replicate previous research investigating changes in racial occupational inequality disaggregated by age and level of educational attainment (Hare, 1965; Siegel, 1965; Johnson and Sell, 1976) and then extend this research in four ways. First, we update previous analyses by examining change in inequality between 1970 and 1980. Second, we perform...

Deprivation and social disadvantage / Muriel Brown -- Who suffers social disadvantage? / Richard Berthoud -- Poverty and gender / Hilary Land -- Racial disadvantage / Alan Little and Diana Robbins -- Employment and deprivation in an urban labour market /Richard Brown and Jim Cousins -- The labour market and family background / Holly Sutherland -- C...

This note considers whether city differences in racial occupational distribution are best investigated using measures of nominal differentiation or measures of inequality, and argues that measures of inequality are better suited for testing the prevailing theories of race differences in occupation distribution. It also defends the Index of Net Diff...

This paper reviews conceptual differences between popular measures of relative intergroup income inequality. To organize our review we introduce a set of guidelines identifying desirable characteristics of measures of relative intergroup income inequality and then evaluate different measures in terms of these guidelines. Significantly, we find that...

This paper reviews the prevailing theories accounting for the pronounced differentials in economic attainment by race and sex, giving particular attention to the role of race and sex differences in educational attainments in explaining these differentials. It finds that discrimination in the labor market continues to be a major factor in generating...

This paper investigates the question of whether city differences in racial occupational inequality are of sufficient magnitude to warrant sustained empirical and theoretical analysis. Using both direct measures of racial occupational inequality and log-linear techniques, we find ample evidence to support the conclusion that city differences in raci...

Results indicate that the higher the sex ratio (i.e., numbers of men in relation to the numbers of women) in a given community, the greater likelihood that Black men and women will marry. Consistent with other research, the study demonstrates that increased economic marginalization experienced by Black men is associated with decreases in the likeli...

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Texas at Austin. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-99).