IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/coecpo/v41y2023i3p415-434.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are historic districts a backdoor for segregation? Yes and no

Author

Listed:
  • Jamie Bologna Pavlik
  • Yang Zhou

Abstract

We study how historic district programs impact residential segregation in Denver. We find that homebuyers are more likely to be White within historic districts, but official historic designation has no effect on this probability. More specifically, we calculate that the predicted probability of having a White homebuyer increases from 77 to over 80 percent when the home is located within a historic district. Similarly, we find that most transactions flow from White sellers to White buyers, regardless of official designation. Thus, while historic districts tend to be more segregated, official designation does not seem to amplify this existing problem.

Suggested Citation

  • Jamie Bologna Pavlik & Yang Zhou, 2023. "Are historic districts a backdoor for segregation? Yes and no," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(3), pages 415-434, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:41:y:2023:i:3:p:415-434
    DOI: 10.1111/coep.12590
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/coep.12590
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/coep.12590?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Werner Troesken & Randall Walsh, 2019. "Collective Action, White Flight, and the Origins of Racial Zoning Laws," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 289-318.
    2. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Nancy Holman, 2018. "Distinctively Different: A New Approach to Valuing Architectural Amenities," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(608), pages 1-33, February.
    3. David M. Cutler & Edward L. Glaeser & Jacob L. Vigdor, 1999. "The Rise and Decline of the American Ghetto," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(3), pages 455-506, June.
    4. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Kristoffer Moeller & Sevrin Waights & Nicolai Wendland, 2017. "Game of Zones: The Political Economy of Conservation Areas," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(605), pages 421-445, October.
    5. Logan, Trevon D. & Parman, John M., 2017. "The National Rise in Residential Segregation," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 77(1), pages 127-170, March.
    6. Been, Vicki & Ellen, Ingrid Gould & Gedal, Michael & Glaeser, Edward & McCabe, Brian J., 2016. "Preserving history or restricting development? The heterogeneous effects of historic districts on local housing markets in New York City," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 16-30.
    7. Allison Shertzer & Tate Twinam & Randall P. Walsh, 2016. "Race, Ethnicity, and Discriminatory Zoning," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(3), pages 217-246, July.
    8. Cook, Lisa D. & Logan, Trevon D. & Parman, John M., 2016. "The mortality consequences of distinctively black names," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 114-125.
    9. Hans R. A. Koster & Jos N. van Ommeren & Piet Rietveld, 2016. "Historic amenities, income and sorting of households," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 16(1), pages 203-236.
    10. Allison Shertzer & Randall P. Walsh, 2019. "Racial Sorting and the Emergence of Segregation in American Cities," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(3), pages 415-427, July.
    11. Cutler, David M. & Glaeser, Edward L. & Vigdor, Jacob L., 2008. "When are ghettos bad? Lessons from immigrant segregation in the United States," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 759-774, May.
    12. Nowak, Adam & Sayago-Gomez, Juan, 2018. "Homeowner preferences after September 11th, a microdata approach," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 330-351.
    13. Hans R.A. Koster & Jan Rouwendal, 2017. "Historic Amenities and Housing Externalities: Evidence from the Netherlands," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(605), pages 396-420, October.
    14. Jonathan T. Rothwell & Douglas S. Massey, 2010. "Density Zoning and Class Segregation in U.S. Metropolitan Areas," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1123-1143, December.
    15. Shertzer, Allison & Twinam, Tate & Walsh, Randall P., 2022. "Zoning and segregation in urban economic history," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    16. Troesken, Werner, 2002. "The Limits Of Jim Crow: Race And The Provision Of Water And Sewerage Services In American Cities, 1880–1925," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 62(3), pages 734-772, September.
    17. Jonathan T. Rothwell & Douglas S. Massey, 2010. "Density Zoning and Class Segregation in U.S. Metropolitan Areas," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 91(s1), pages 1123-1143.
    18. Zhou, Yang, 2021. "The political economy of historic districts: The private, the public, and the collective," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    19. Martin Heintzelman & Jason Altieri, 2013. "Erratum to: Historic Preservation: Preserving Value?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 564-564, April.
    20. Durlauf, Steven N., 2004. "Neighborhood effects," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 50, pages 2173-2242, Elsevier.
    21. Xu, Dafeng, 2019. "Surname-based ethnicity and ethnic segregation in the early twentieth century U.S," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 1-19.
    22. David M. Cutler & Edward L. Glaeser, 1997. "Are Ghettos Good or Bad?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(3), pages 827-872.
    23. Brad R. Humphreys & Adam Nowak & Yang Zhou, 2019. "Superstition and real estate prices: transaction-level evidence from the US housing market," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(26), pages 2818-2841, June.
    24. Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(4), pages 991-1013, September.
    25. Weinberg, Bruce A., 2000. "Black Residential Centralization and the Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 110-134, July.
    26. Brian J. McCabe & Ingrid Gould Ellen, 2016. "Does Preservation Accelerate Neighborhood Change? Examining the Impact of Historic Preservation in New York City," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 82(2), pages 134-146, April.
    27. Douglas S. Noonan & Douglas J. Krupka, 2011. "Making—or Picking—Winners: Evidence of Internal and External Price Effects in Historic Preservation Policies," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 39(2), pages 379-407, June.
    28. Bongkyun Kim & Michael R. Thomsen & Rodolfo M. Nayga & Di Fang & Anthony Goudie, 2020. "Move More, Gain Less: Effect Of A Recreational Trail System On Childhood Bmi," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 38(2), pages 270-288, April.
    29. Leah Platt Boustan, 2013. "Racial Residential Segregation in American Cities," NBER Working Papers 19045, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    30. Martin Heintzelman & Jason Altieri, 2013. "Historic Preservation: Preserving Value?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 543-563, April.
    31. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Kristoffer Moeller & Sevrin Waights & Nicolai Wendland, 2017. "Game of Zones: The Political Economy of Conservation Areas," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(605), pages 421-445, October.
    32. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Nancy Holman, 2018. "Distinctively Different: A New Approach to Valuing Architectural Amenities," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(608), pages 1-33.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhou, Yang, 2021. "The political economy of historic districts: The private, the public, and the collective," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    2. Hanlon, W.Walker & Heblich, Stephan, 2022. "History and urban economics," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    3. Hilber, Christian A.L. & Palmer, Charles & Pinchbeck, Edward W., 2019. "The energy costs of historic preservation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    4. Portillo, Javier E. & Wagner, Gary A., 2021. "Do cultural districts spur urban revitalization: Evidence from Louisiana," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 651-673.
    5. van Vuuren, Aico & Kjellander, Josef & Nilsson, Viktor, 2019. "Refugees and apartment prices: A case study to investigate the attitudes of home buyers," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 20-37.
    6. Lu, Jiaxuan, 2023. "The economics of China’s between-city height competition: A regression discontinuity approach," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    7. Franco, Sofia F. & Macdonald, Jacob L., 2018. "The effects of cultural heritage on residential property values: Evidence from Lisbon, Portugal," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 35-56.
    8. Viladecans-Marsal, Elisabet & Garcia-Lopez, Miquel-Angel & Pasidis, Ilias, 2018. "Amphitheaters, cathedrals and operas: The role of historic amenities on suburbanization," CEPR Discussion Papers 13129, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Bertacchini, Enrico & Revelli, Federico & Zotti, Roberto, 2024. "The economic impact of UNESCO World Heritage: Evidence from Italy," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    10. Koster, Hans R.A. & van Ommeren, Jos & Volkhausen, Nicolas, 2021. "Short-term rentals and the housing market: Quasi-experimental evidence from Airbnb in Los Angeles," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    11. Liu, Ruiming & Yan, Haosheng & Zhang, Zebang, 2024. "Does historic preservation affect firms' output? Evidence from the awarding of the Historic City title in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    12. van Vuuren, Aico, 2022. "Is There a Diminishing Value of Urban Amenities as a Result of the COVID-19 Pandemic?," IZA Discussion Papers 15025, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Kulkarni, Nirupama & Malmendier, Ulrike, 2022. "Homeownership segregation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 123-149.
    14. Tetsuharu Oba & Douglas Simpson Noonan, 2020. "The Price of Preserving Neighborhoods: The Unequal Impacts of Historic District Designation," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 34(4), pages 343-355, November.
    15. Cuberes, David & Roberts, Jennifer & Sechel, Cristina, 2019. "Household location in English cities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 120-135.
    16. Sevrin Waights, 2019. "The preservation of historic districts—is it worth it?," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 433-464.
    17. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Nancy Holman, 2018. "Distinctively Different: A New Approach to Valuing Architectural Amenities," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(608), pages 1-33, February.
    18. Mario A. Fernandez & Shane L. Martin, 2020. "What’s so special about character?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(16), pages 3236-3251, December.
    19. Collins, William J., 2021. "The Great Migration of Black Americans from the US South: A guide and interpretation," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    20. Logan, Trevon D. & Parman, John M., 2017. "The National Rise in Residential Segregation," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 77(1), pages 127-170, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:41:y:2023:i:3:p:415-434. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/weaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.