A silver lining to white flight? White suburbanization and African-American homeownership, 1940-1980

Leah P. Boustan; Robert A. Margo

doi:10.1016/j.jue.2013.08.001

A silver lining to white flight? White suburbanization and African-American homeownership, 1940-1980

Leah P. Boustan, Robert A. Margo

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

36 Scopus citations

Abstract

Between 1940 and 1980, the homeownership rate among metropolitan African-American households increased by 27 percentage points. Nearly three-quarters of this increase occurred in central cities. We show that rising black homeownership in central cities was facilitated by the movement of white households to the suburban ring, which reduced the price of urban housing units conducive to owner-occupancy. Our OLS and IV estimates imply that 26 percent of the national increase in black homeownership over the period is explained by white suburbanization.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	71-80
Number of pages	10
Journal	Journal of Urban Economics
Volume	78
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2013.08.001
State	Published - Nov 2013
Externally published	Yes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Economics and Econometrics
Urban Studies

Keywords

African-American
Filtering
Homeownership
Suburbanization

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10.1016/j.jue.2013.08.001

Cite this

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title = "A silver lining to white flight? White suburbanization and African-American homeownership, 1940-1980",

abstract = "Between 1940 and 1980, the homeownership rate among metropolitan African-American households increased by 27 percentage points. Nearly three-quarters of this increase occurred in central cities. We show that rising black homeownership in central cities was facilitated by the movement of white households to the suburban ring, which reduced the price of urban housing units conducive to owner-occupancy. Our OLS and IV estimates imply that 26 percent of the national increase in black homeownership over the period is explained by white suburbanization.",

keywords = "African-American, Filtering, Homeownership, Suburbanization",

author = "Boustan, {Leah P.} and Margo, {Robert A.}",

note = "Funding Information: We acknowledge the able research assistance of Mary Ann Bronson and Zhuofu Song and financial support from the Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA. Nathaniel Baum-Snow generously shared data with us. Comments from Stuart Rosenthal, Tara Watson, and workshop participants at the 2010 ASSA meetings, the NBER Development of the American Economy Program Meeting, the All-UC Economic History conference, Sciences Po, UC-Irvine, the UCLA KALER group, and the University of Pittsburgh are gratefully acknowledged.",

year = "2013",

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doi = "10.1016/j.jue.2013.08.001",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "78",

pages = "71--80",

journal = "Journal of Urban Economics",

issn = "0094-1190",

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AU - Boustan, Leah P.

AU - Margo, Robert A.

N1 - Funding Information: We acknowledge the able research assistance of Mary Ann Bronson and Zhuofu Song and financial support from the Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA. Nathaniel Baum-Snow generously shared data with us. Comments from Stuart Rosenthal, Tara Watson, and workshop participants at the 2010 ASSA meetings, the NBER Development of the American Economy Program Meeting, the All-UC Economic History conference, Sciences Po, UC-Irvine, the UCLA KALER group, and the University of Pittsburgh are gratefully acknowledged.

PY - 2013/11

Y1 - 2013/11

N2 - Between 1940 and 1980, the homeownership rate among metropolitan African-American households increased by 27 percentage points. Nearly three-quarters of this increase occurred in central cities. We show that rising black homeownership in central cities was facilitated by the movement of white households to the suburban ring, which reduced the price of urban housing units conducive to owner-occupancy. Our OLS and IV estimates imply that 26 percent of the national increase in black homeownership over the period is explained by white suburbanization.

AB - Between 1940 and 1980, the homeownership rate among metropolitan African-American households increased by 27 percentage points. Nearly three-quarters of this increase occurred in central cities. We show that rising black homeownership in central cities was facilitated by the movement of white households to the suburban ring, which reduced the price of urban housing units conducive to owner-occupancy. Our OLS and IV estimates imply that 26 percent of the national increase in black homeownership over the period is explained by white suburbanization.

KW - African-American

KW - Filtering

KW - Homeownership

KW - Suburbanization

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ER -

A silver lining to white flight? White suburbanization and African-American homeownership, 1940-1980

Abstract

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Keywords

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