Was Postwar Suburbanization "White Flight"? Evidence from the Black Migration

S-Tier
Journal: Quarterly Journal of Economics
Year: 2010
Volume: 125
Issue: 1
Pages: 417-443

Score contribution per author:

8.043 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Residential segregation by jurisdiction generates disparities in public services and education. The distinctive American pattern—in which blacks live in cities and whites in suburbs—was enhanced by a large black migration from the rural South. I show that whites responded to this black influx by leaving cities and rule out an indirect effect on housing prices as a sole cause. I instrument for changes in black population by using local economic conditions to predict black migration from southern states and assigning predicted flows to northern cities according to established settlement patterns. The best causal estimates imply that each black arrival led to 2.7 white departures.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:oup:qjecon:v:125:y:2010:i:1:p:417-443.
Journal Field
General
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-24