TY - JOUR
T1 - Tipping and the dynamics of segregation
AU - Card, David
AU - Mas, Alexandre
AU - Rothstein, Jesse
N1 - Funding Information:
* We are grateful to Edward Glaeser and three anonymous referees for their insightful comments and to Ted Miguel, Joshua Angrist, Jack Porter, Bo Honoré, Mark Watson, José Scheinkman, and Roland Benabou for helpful discussions. David Walton, Brad Howells, and Andrew Roland provided outstanding research assistance. We also thank Gregg Carter and Bill Collins for the data used to construct an index of riot severity and Albert Saiz and Susan Wachter for data on land use patterns. This research was funded in part by the Center for Labor Economics and the Fisher Center for Real Estate at UC Berkeley and by the Industrial Relations Section and the Center for Economic Policy Studies at Princeton University.
PY - 2008/2
Y1 - 2008/2
N2 - Schelling ("Dynamic Models of Segregation," Journal of Mathematical Sociology 1 (1971), 143-186) showed that extreme segregation can arise from social interactions in white preferences: once the minority share in a neighborhood exceeds a "tipping point," all the whites leave. We use regression discontinuity methods and Census tract data from 1970 through 2000 to test for discontinuities in the dynamics of neighborhood racial composition. We find strong evidence that white population flows exhibit tipping-like behavior in most cities, with a distribution of tipping points ranging from 5% to 20% minority share. Tipping is prevalent both in the suburbs and near existing minority enclaves. In contrast to white population flows, there is little evidence of nonlinearities in rents or housing prices around the tipping point. Tipping points are higher in cities where whites have more tolerant racial attitudes.
AB - Schelling ("Dynamic Models of Segregation," Journal of Mathematical Sociology 1 (1971), 143-186) showed that extreme segregation can arise from social interactions in white preferences: once the minority share in a neighborhood exceeds a "tipping point," all the whites leave. We use regression discontinuity methods and Census tract data from 1970 through 2000 to test for discontinuities in the dynamics of neighborhood racial composition. We find strong evidence that white population flows exhibit tipping-like behavior in most cities, with a distribution of tipping points ranging from 5% to 20% minority share. Tipping is prevalent both in the suburbs and near existing minority enclaves. In contrast to white population flows, there is little evidence of nonlinearities in rents or housing prices around the tipping point. Tipping points are higher in cities where whites have more tolerant racial attitudes.
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U2 - 10.1162/qjec.2008.123.1.177
DO - 10.1162/qjec.2008.123.1.177
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:42149160009
SN - 0033-5533
VL - 123
SP - 177
EP - 218
JO - Quarterly Journal of Economics
JF - Quarterly Journal of Economics
IS - 1
ER -