Article

Income Segregation: Up or Down, and for Whom?

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Abstract

Reports of rising income segregation in the United States have been brought into question by the observation that post-2000 estimates are upwardly biased because of a reduction in the sample sizes on which they are based. Recent studies have offered estimates of this sample-count bias using public data. We show here that there are two substantial sources of systematic bias in estimating segregation levels: bias associated with sample size and bias associated with using weighted sample data. We rely on new correction methods using the original census sample data for individual households to provide more accurate estimates. Family income segregation rose markedly in the 1980s but only selectively after 1990. For some categories of families, segregation declined after 1990. There has been an upward trend for families with children but not specifically for families with children in the upper or lower 10% of the income distribution. Separate analyses by race/ethnicity show that income segregation was not generally higher among Blacks and Hispanics than among White families, and evidence of income segregation trends for these separate groups is mixed. Income segregation increased for all three racial groups for families with children, particularly for Hispanics (but not Whites or Blacks) in the upper 10% of the income distribution. Trends vary for specific combinations of race/ethnicity, presence of children, and location in the income distribution, offering new challenges for understanding the underlying processes of change.

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... R ISING levels of income inequality in the West have led to concerns that the social divide between rich and poor is growing (Duncan and Murnane 2011;Mijs and Roe 2021;Reardon and Bischoff 2011). Although the statistical reality of growing inequality is virtually undisputed (Atkinson, Piketty, and Saez 2011;McCall and Percheski 2010;Neckerman and Torche 2007;Piketty and Saez 2003), it has not yet been determined whether this trend has been universally accompanied by increasing income segregation (Logan et al. 2020;Reardon et al. 2018). In other words, are rich and poor simply becoming richer and poorer, or has increasing economic inequality also cemented a social and spatial economic divide? ...
... The first is the rank-order information theory index, H R (Reardon et al. 2006;Reardon and Bischoff 2011), which relies on rank-order income groups based on percentiles and which measures how populations below and above each percentile threshold are segregated between neighborhoods. In recent work, Reardon et al. (2018) and Logan et al. (2020) have noted that the use of grouped income data and sampling weights tends to bias segregation measures. Having access to full-population individuallevel income data, we obtain unbiased estimates of income segregation in Sweden without the need for further sample adjustments. ...
... In a further contrast to the United States, levels of segregation in Sweden are lower among the country's ethnic non-Western minority population vis-à-vis the ethnic majority. Although there is some debate on this point among U.S. scholars-for example, between Reardon et al. (2018) and Logan et al. (2020)-we unequivocally find lower and more stable levels of segregation among non-Western minorities in Sweden. These lower levels of income segregation, combined with overall lower levels of disposable income and a recent increase in segregation of the affluent minority population, reflect the fact that until recently affluent minorities were unable to find their way into ethnic majority-group neighborhoods. ...
... We seek to quantify the relative contributions of changes in inter-neighborhood migration and in situ neighborhood change to increases between 1980 and 1990 in the neighborhood income gap between poor and rich persons. We focus on the 1980s because this decade witnessed a substantial increase in neighborhood income segregation; for most groups income segregation has changed little since 1990 (Logan et al., 2020;Reardon et al., 2018). We conduct the analyses separately for blacks and whites because declining housing discrimination over this period is thought to have increasingly enabled middle-and upper-class blacks to move to higher-income neighborhoods (Wilson, 1987). ...
... By most accounts, neighborhood income segregation in the United States grew sharply during the 1980s. Beginning in 1990, however, the trend has been much less pronounced (Logan et al., 2020;Reardon and Bischoff, 2011). Using an entropy-based measure, Reardon et al. (2018) find that neighborhood income segregation among families in the largest 116 U.S. metropolitan areas rose significantly between 1980 and 1990 but changed little between 1990 and 2014. ...
... It is not yet clear why the increase in neighborhood income segregation apparently stalled after 1990. Logan et al. (2020) speculate that the Great Recession may have severed the link between increasing income inequality and increasing income segregation, as home foreclosures and changing mortgage requirements limited the ability to move to richer neighborhoods. Economic disruption may have also reduced the value of nonhome assets that otherwise would have enabled middle-and upper-class households to move to high-income neighborhoods. ...
Article
The growth in residential segregation by income implies an increase over time in the neighborhood income gap between rich and poor households. This analysis uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, in concert with tract-level decennial U.S. census data, to quantify the relative contribution of two proximate sources of this increase: change in the income-class-selectivity of inter-neighborhood migrants and change in the class difference in neighborhood income among non-migrants, or in situ change. Change in the income-class-selectivity of migrants is likely to be particularly important for explaining the increase in the neighborhood income gap among blacks to the extent that declining housing discrimination enables middle-class blacks to access higher-income neighborhoods. Decomposition of the change between 1980 and 1990 in the class difference in neighborhood income shows that, among blacks, the increase in the neighborhood income gap between rich and poor persons is attributable in large measure to a change in migrant selectivity. An increase in the class difference in average income among the destination neighborhoods of short-distance migrants is a particularly important source of the growth in the class difference in neighborhood income among blacks. In contrast, among whites, the bulk of the increase in the class difference in neighborhood income is attributable to a divergence in neighborhood income between rich and poor non-migrants.
... This seems relevant given the extensive research linking income and inequality with life expectancy outcomes [22][23][24][25][26]. However, recent studies have questioned the apparent rise in residential income segregation during the 2000s, attributing it partly to biases from the Census Bureau's shift from the decennial Census to the American Community Survey, underscoring the complexity of measuring income segregation [27][28][29]. Specifically, the evidence shows that income residential segregation has not grown as rapidly in recent decades among Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino American families as previously thought [27,[30][31][32], yet disparities with white families persist [28]. Additionally, a recent study highlights that socioeconomic status, race-ethnic composition, and geographic location each independently influence mortality rates [33]. ...
... However, recent studies have questioned the apparent rise in residential income segregation during the 2000s, attributing it partly to biases from the Census Bureau's shift from the decennial Census to the American Community Survey, underscoring the complexity of measuring income segregation [27][28][29]. Specifically, the evidence shows that income residential segregation has not grown as rapidly in recent decades among Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino American families as previously thought [27,[30][31][32], yet disparities with white families persist [28]. Additionally, a recent study highlights that socioeconomic status, race-ethnic composition, and geographic location each independently influence mortality rates [33]. ...
Article
Recent research shows a significant link between race-ethnicity and income concentration and premature death rates in the U.S. However, most studies focus on Black-White residential concentration, overlooking racial-ethnic diversity. Our study examines the impact of racial-ethnic majority composition on mortality and how this relationship varies across different levels of economic concentration in neighborhoods, as defined by census tracts. Premature death rates (under 65 years of age) were retrieved from abridged period life tables from 67,140 U.S. census tracts derived from the U.S. Small-area Life Expectancy Project. Covariate factors were retrieved from the 2011–2015 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates. We measured racial-ethnic concentration by grouping neighborhoods using each tract’s majority racial-ethnic group, and approximated income concentration using the Index of Concentration of the Extremes. We used three-level random intercept models to examine the interaction of racial-ethnic and income concentration and its association with neighborhood mortality risk, accounting for covariates. Our study yielded three salient findings. First, mortality risk varied greatly in poor neighborhoods with different racial-ethnic compositions compared to affluent neighborhoods, with notable higher risk in Black-majority areas. Second, in diverse neighborhoods where no single ethnic group forms a majority—referred to as Minority-majority neighborhoods—the mortality risk is comparable to that in White-majority neighborhoods. Third, Hispanic/Latino- and Asian-majority neighborhoods had lower mortality risk than White-majority neighborhoods in areas with a high concentration of poverty, but similar mortality risk in affluent areas. The study suggests that racial-ethnic and socioeconomic area-based measures are important to consider together to address mortality inequities accurately.
... Most of the literature focuses on the impact of inequality on spatial segregation due to residential sorting (Tammaru et al. 2020;Scarpa 2015;Watson 2009;Mutgan and Mijs 2023;Watson 2006;Jargowsky and Wheeler 2017;Quillian 2012). Studies have found that residential segregation has risen steadily alongside income inequality (Reardon et al. 2018;Watson 2009;Taylor and Fry 2012), but more recent literature accounting for bias due to sampling variation within census long form and American Community Survey (ACS) data found that it has actually remained fairly stable or risen only slowly since 1990 (Logan et al. 2020;Reardon et al. 2018). In particular, evidence suggests that residential segregation is driven mostly by high-income households (Reardon and Bischoff 2011) and households with children given their distinct preferences in schools and other neighborhood resources and features (Reardon et al. 2018;Owens 2016;Bernelius and Vaattovaara 2016). ...
... In particular, evidence suggests that residential segregation is driven mostly by high-income households (Reardon and Bischoff 2011) and households with children given their distinct preferences in schools and other neighborhood resources and features (Reardon et al. 2018;Owens 2016;Bernelius and Vaattovaara 2016). Many studies have also found that racial and ethnic differences play a role in the size of the relationship between economic inequality and residential segregation through discrimination, housing policy, or differential residential preferences (Logan et al. 2020;Reardon et al. 2018Reardon et al. , 2008Huffman and Cohen 2004;Watson 2009;Reardon and Bischoff 2011;Taylor and Fry 2012;Florida and Mellander 2018;Mulder 2013). Components of the built environment, like highways, street networks, and public transportation systems, may influence residential segregation (Reardon et al. 2008), and other cultural and socioeconomic preferences that develop as economic inequality increases may also have an impact (Smith, McPherson, and Smith-Lovin 2014). ...
... Whether class shifts within cities are evident in cross-time data is another question. In the U.S. case, for metropolitan areas nationally, Logan et al. (2020) find that while neighborhood income segregation along various measures increased up until 1990, most measures have been stable since and some have declined. Logan et al. (2020Logan et al. ( : 1952 conclude: "Instead of explaining how increasing inequality translates into greater residential separation, researchers now need to understand why it may not." ...
... In the U.S. case, for metropolitan areas nationally, Logan et al. (2020) find that while neighborhood income segregation along various measures increased up until 1990, most measures have been stable since and some have declined. Logan et al. (2020Logan et al. ( : 1952 conclude: "Instead of explaining how increasing inequality translates into greater residential separation, researchers now need to understand why it may not." At any rate, DeVerteuil's typology goes beyond income segregation (which has often been studied) and sets out questions about changes in other dimensions of city life that future research can explore and empirically track. ...
Article
Inequality is a pivotal concern for social scientists, manifest within and across communities globally. Geoffrey DeVerteuil provides a provocative discussion about the contours of inequality in the city and offers a heuristic framework aimed at its understanding. I focus on three aspects of DeVerteuil's arguments: the importance of reconsidering radical political economy theory to understand urban change and bridge disparate traditions; how the lopsidedness of the city is conceptualized; and whether and how his arguments can be extended to other contexts.
... As a new report from the University of California, Berkeley, shows, however, among the 113 U.S. cities today with populations of more than 200,000, only two-Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Port St. Lucie, Florida-are racially integrated (Menendian, Gambhir, and Gailes 2021;Othering & Belonging Institute 2022b). 1 Among 209 metropolitan areas with populations of more than 200,000, just 40 have become less segregated since 1990, while more than 80 percent (169) have grown more segregated (Menendian et al. 2021;Othering & Belonging Institute 2022a). Overall, racial and ethnic residential segregation remains high (Faber 2020;Krysan and Crowder 2017) and complex changes in income-based segregation have been shown to interact with racial and ethnic settlement patterns in ways that both complicate and reinforce enduring urban racial and ethnic inequality (Jargowsky 2018;Logan, Foster et al. 2020). ...
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American metropolitan areas have experienced rising residential segregation by income since 1970. One potential explanation for this change is growing income inequality. However, measures of residential sorting are typically mechanically related to the income distribution, making it difficult to identify the impact of inequality on residential choice. This paper presents a measure of residential segregation by income, the Centile Gap Index (CGI), which is based on income percentiles. Using the CGI, I find that a one standard deviation increase in income inequality raises residential income segregation by 0.4-0.9 standard deviations. Inequality at the top of the distribution is associated with more segregation of the rich, while inequality at the bottom and declines in labor demand for less-skilled men are associated with residential isolation of the poor. Inequality can fully explain the rise in income segregation between 1970 and 2000.
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"The Truly Disadvantagedshould spur critical thinking in many quarters about the causes and possible remedies for inner city poverty. As policy makers grapple with the problems of an enlarged underclass they—as well as community leaders and all concerned Americans of all races—would be advised to examine Mr. Wilson's incisive analysis."—Robert Greenstein,New York Times Book Review "'Must reading' for civil-rights leaders, leaders of advocacy organizations for the poor, and for elected officials in our major urban centers."—Bernard C. Watson,Journal of Negro Education "Required reading for anyone, presidential candidate or private citizen, who really wants to address the growing plight of the black urban underclass."—David J. Garrow,Washington Post Book World Selected by the editors of theNew York Times Book Reviewas one of the sixteen best books of 1987. Winner of the 1988 C. Wright Mills Award of the Society for the Study of Social Problems.
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In this article, the authors use a special data set compiled for 60 US metropolitan areas to examine 1970-1980 trends in the distribution of family income and shifts in the degree of segregation between income groups. They document how these changes contributed to increases in the spatial concentration of affluence and poverty during the 1970s and estimate simple descriptive models that connect these outcomes to broader socioeconomic trends in US urban areas. We begin by summarizing trends in the relative number of affluent, poor, and middle-class families in large metropolitan areas and then consider changes in the degree of spatial segregation between them. After documenting an increase in the relative number of affluent and poor families in key urban areas and confirming a new spatial separation between affluent and poor, we substantiate the growing geographic concentration of affluence and poverty during the 1970s and estimate simple statistical models to explore the socioeconomic roots of these trends in greater detail. -from Authors
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Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs 2003 (2003) 1-40 IF INCOME INEQUALITY rises during a period in which rich and poor families become more segregated, only one outcome is possible: affluence and poverty both will become more geographically concentrated. Families that are well-off financially will increasingly live near and interact with other affluent families, and those that lack economic resources will live near and interact mainly with other poor families. Under these circumstances, the social worlds of the rich and poor will increasingly diverge. The poor will tend to inhabit high-risk neighborhoods that significantly lower the odds of socioeconomic success, while the affluent will enjoy a safe and secure world that enhances the possibilities of success on a variety of fronts. As they grow apart, the material interests of poor and affluent communities will also diverge. Residents of high-income households in affluent communities (with high property values) will have an incentive to tax themselves at low rates to provide good public services, while poor people living in poor communities (with low property values) will have to tax themselves at high rates if they are to receive services that even approach the quality of those offered in more affluent communities. With high values, however, the same revenue can be generated with lower rates. If the affluent and poor communities correspond to separate taxing authorities, the former will naturally resist raising taxes to offset the high taxes or subsidize the services of the latter. Thus, the simultaneous occurrence of rising socioeconomic inequality and growing class segregation portends a society that is divided not only geographically, but also socially and politically as well. Many studies show that income inequality rose substantially over the last quarter of the twentieth century in marked contrast to the previous quarter century. Whereas the median family income grew by 208 percent and the Gini coefficient for inequality fell by 6 percent from 1950 to 1975, between 1977 and 1999 the after-tax income of families in the middle of the distribution rose by just 3 percent while the Gini coefficient increased by 14 percent. In contrast to the stagnation observed in the middle of the income distribution, income within the top fifth rose by 38 percent while that in the top 1 percent rose by 120 percent. This pattern of stagnating incomes at the middle accompanied by slow declines at the bottom and rapid increases at the top was replicated throughout the country, although the degree of polarization appeared to be most extreme in the Northeast and Midwest. Trends with respect to the geographic segregation of families by income are less well documented. Most attempts to measure income segregation have used tract-level data for specific urban areas. Massey and Eggers found that residential dissimilarity between affluent and poor families increased by 4 percent in the 30 largest metropolitan areas between 1970 and 1980. The largest increases in class segregation were again observed in the Northeast and Midwest. In the ten largest metropolitan areas, the degree of residential dissimilarity between affluent and poor families rose by 6 percent during the 1970s and 8 percent during the 1980s. Using a somewhat different measure (the class sorting index) over a wider set of metropolitan areas, Jargowsky found that class segregation rose by 13 percent from 1970 to 1980 and by 10 percent from 1980 to 1990, at least among whites. Available data thus suggest that both income inequality and class segregation increased during the period from 1970 to 1990, which predicts a growing spatial concentration of both affluence and poverty within neighborhoods of American cities. Using the P* isolation index, Massey and Eggers found that within the 30 largest metropolitan areas the geographic concentration of poverty rose by 20 percent between 1970 and 1980 and the spatial concentration of affluence grew by 13 percent. Between 1980 and 1990 the concentration of poverty rose by another 10 percent and that of affluence by 21 percent in the ten largest metropolitan areas. These scattered results provide an incomplete picture of the geography of inequality, however. First, prior analyses have measured segregation and concentration only at one geographic level—the census tract—yet other spatial...
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Suburbanization is changing the face of urban America. A common claim is that suburban sprawl has contributed to increasing levels of economic segregation, but few studies have directly tested this hypothesis. Using U.S. Census data for 1990 and 2000, this paper examines the trends in and the relationship between suburban development patterns and economic segregation in U.S. metropolitan areas. We find that economic segregation, as measured by the Neighborhood Sorting Index (NSI), declined during the 1990s, reversing the earlier trend. However, results from cross-sectional and fixed-effects regression models at the metropolitan level suggest that suburbanization, as measured by five different indicators, was a countervailing influence during the decade. Metropolitan areas that were suburbanizing more rapidly had smaller declines in economic segregation than comparable metropolitan areas.
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American metropolitan areas have experienced rising residential segregation by income since 1970. One potential explanation for this change is growing income inequality. However, measures of residential sorting are typically mechanically related to the income distribution, making it difficult to identify the impact of inequality on residential choice. This paper presents a measure of residential segregation by income, the Centile Gap Index (CGI), which is based on income percentiles. Using the CGI, I find that a one standard deviation increase in income inequality raises residential income segregation by 0.4-0.9 standard deviations. Inequality at the top of the distribution is associated with more segregation of the rich, while inequality at the bottom and declines in labor demand for less-skilled men are associated with residential isolation of the poor. Inequality can fully explain the rise in income segregation between 1970 and 2000. Copyright 2009 The Author. Journal compilation International Association for Research in Income and Wealth 2009.
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This article investigates how the growth in income inequality from 1970 to 2000 affected patterns of income segregation along three dimensions: the spatial segregation of poverty and affluence, race-specific patterns of income segregation, and the geographic scale of income segregation. The evidence reveals a robust relationship between income inequality and income segregation, an effect that is larger for black families than for white families. In addition, income inequality affects income segregation primarily through its effect on the large-scale spatial segregation of affluence rather than by affecting the spatial segregation of poverty or by altering small-scale patterns of income segregation.
Article
Compared to racial segregation, economic segregation has received little attention in recent empirical literature. Yet a heated debate has arisen concerning Wilson's hypothesis (1987) that increasing economic segregation plays a role in the formation of urban ghettos. This paper presents a methodological critique of the measure of economic segregation used by Massey and Eggers (1990) and finds that it confounds changes in the income distribution with spatial changes. I develop a "pure" measure of economic segregation and present findings on all U.S. metropolitan areas from 1970 to 1990. There have been steady increases in economic segregation for whites, blacks, and Hispanics in both the 1970s and 1980s, but the increases have been particularly large and widespread for blacks and Hispanics in the 1980s. The causes of these changes are explored in a reduced form, fixed-effects model. Social distance theory and structural economic transformations do affect economic segregation, but the large increases in economic segregation among minorities in the 1980s cannot be fully explained within the model. These rapid increases in economic segregation, especially in the context of recent, albeit small, declines in racial segregation, have important implications for urban policy, poverty policy, and the stability of urban communities.
Article
Households became more geographically segregated by income in the United States between 1970 and 1990. Economic inequality also increased between 1970 and 1990. Using 1970, 1980, and 1990 Census data, I find that an increase in income inequality at the state level is associated with an increased in economic segregation in the state. The increase in segregation was not mainly the result of a decline in within-neighborhood economic heterogeneity. Economic inequality between households in the same census tract hardly changed between 1970 and 1990. The increase in segregation was mainly due to an increase in the variance of mean neighborhood income. This has important implications for interpreting the consequences of increases in economic segregation and for understanding why economic inequality and economic segregation are related.
The rise of residential segregation by income
  • R Fry
  • P Taylor
Fry, R., & Taylor, P. (2012). The rise of residential segregation by income (Social & Demographic Trends Report). Washington, DC: Pew Research Center. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/wpcontent/uploads/sites/3/2012/08/Rise-of-Residential-Income-Segregation-2012.2.pdf
Diversity and disparities: America enters a new century
  • K Bischoff
  • S F Reardon
Bischoff, K., & Reardon, S. F. (2014). Residential segregation by income, 1970-2009. In J. R. Logan (Ed.), Diversity and disparities: America enters a new century (pp. 208-233). New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
Segregated city: The geography of economic segregation in America's metros (Report by the Martin Prosperity Institute)
  • R Florida
  • C Mellander
Florida, R., & Mellander, C. (2015). Segregated city: The geography of economic segregation in America's metros (Report by the Martin Prosperity Institute). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto. Retrieved from http://martinprosperity.org/media/Segregated%20City.pdf