IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/gwi/wpaper/2023-05.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Role of Social Connections in the Racial Segregation of US Cities

Author

Listed:
  • Tanner Regan

    (George Washington University)

  • Andreas Diemer

    (Stockholm University)

  • Cheng Keat Tang

    (Nanyang Technological University)

Abstract

We study the extent of segregation in the social space of urban America. We measure segregation as the (lack of) actual personal connections between groups as opposed to conventional measures based on own neighbourhood composition. We distinguish social segregation from geographical definitions of segregation, and build and compare city-level indices of each. Conditional on residential segregation, cities with more institutions that foster social cohesion (churches and community associations) are less socially segregated. Looking at within-city variation across neighbourhoods, growing up more socially exposed to non-white neighbourhoods is related to various adulthood outcomes (jailed, income rank, married, and non-migrant) for black individuals. Social exposure to non-white neighbourhoods is always related to worsening adulthood outcomes in neighbourhoods that are majority non-white. Our results suggest that social connections, beyond residential location or other spatial relationships, are important for understanding the effective segregation of race in America.

Suggested Citation

  • Tanner Regan & Andreas Diemer & Cheng Keat Tang, 2023. "The Role of Social Connections in the Racial Segregation of US Cities," Working Papers 2023-05, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    • Handle: RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2023-05
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www2.gwu.edu/~iiep/assets/docs/papers/2023WP/ReganIIEP2023-05.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gergő Tóth & Johannes Wachs & Riccardo Clemente & Ákos Jakobi & Bence Ságvári & János Kertész & Balázs Lengyel, 2021. "Inequality is rising where social network segregation interacts with urban topology," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Cody Cook & Lindsey Currier & Edward L. Glaeser, 2022. "Urban Mobility and the Experienced Isolation of Students," NBER Working Papers 29645, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Elizabeth Oltmans Ananat, 2011. "The Wrong Side(s) of the Tracks: The Causal Effects of Racial Segregation on Urban Poverty and Inequality," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 34-66, April.
    4. Federico Echenique & Roland G. Fryer, 2007. "A Measure of Segregation Based on Social Interactions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(2), pages 441-485.
    5. 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.
    6. Michael Bailey & Ruiqing Cao & Theresa Kuchler & Johannes Stroebel, 2018. "The Economic Effects of Social Networks: Evidence from the Housing Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(6), pages 2224-2276.
    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. Lévêque, Christophe & Saleh, Mohamed, 2018. "Does industrialization affect segregation? Evidence from nineteenth-century Cairo," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 40-61.
    2. Victoria Gregory & Julian Kozlowski & Hannah Rubinton, 2022. "The Impact of Racial Segregation on College Attainment in Spatial Equilibrium," Working Papers 2022-036, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, revised 27 Nov 2024.
    3. Till Baldenius & Nicolas Koch & Hannah Klauber & Nadja Klein, 2023. "Heat increases experienced racial segregation in the United States," Papers 2306.13772, arXiv.org.
    4. Calvano, Emilio & Immordino, Giovanni & Scognamiglio, Annalisa, 2022. "What drives segregation? Evidence from social interactions among students," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    5. Monica Langella & Alan Manning, 2019. "Diversity and Neighbourhood Satisfaction," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(624), pages 3219-3255.
    6. 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.
    7. Bhardwaj, Sakshi & Shonchoy, Abu S., 2024. "Social identity and learning: Adult literacy program in India," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    8. Mele, Angelo, 2013. "Poisson indices of segregation," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 65-85.
    9. Ehlers, Lars & Hafalir, Isa E. & Yenmez, M. Bumin & Yildirim, Muhammed A., 2014. "School choice with controlled choice constraints: Hard bounds versus soft bounds," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 648-683.
    10. Tugce, Cuhadaroglu, 2013. "My Group Beats Your Group: Evaluating Non-Income Inequalities," SIRE Discussion Papers 2013-49, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    11. Ingrid Gould Ellen & Stephen L. Ross, 2018. "Race and the City," Working Papers 2018-022, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    12. Elizabeth Ananat & Shihe Fu & Stephen L. Ross, 2013. "Race-Specific Agglomeration Economies: Social Distance and the Black-White Wage Gap," Working papers 2013-08, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    13. Coralio Ballester & Marc Vorsatz, 2014. "Random Walk-Based Segregation Measures," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(3), pages 383-401, July.
    14. Paul E. Carrillo & Jonathan L. Rothbaum, 2022. "Counterfactual dissimilarity: Can changes in demographics and income explain increased racial integration in US cities?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 21-56, January.
    15. Oscar Volij & David Frankel, 2004. "Measuring Segregation," Econometric Society 2004 North American Summer Meetings 210, Econometric Society.
    16. 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.
    17. Gregory Fairchild, 2009. "Racial segregation in the public schools and adult labor market outcomes: the case of black Americans," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 467-484, December.
    18. Kulkarni, Nirupama & Malmendier, Ulrike, 2022. "Homeownership segregation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 123-149.
    19. Dai, Tianran & Schiff, Nathan, 2023. "The structure and growth of ethnic neighborhoods," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    20. Francesco Andreoli & Claudio Zoli, 2015. "Measuring the interaction dimension of segregation: the Gini-Exposure index," Working Papers 30/2015, University of Verona, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Segregation; Social Networks; US cities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:gwi:wpaper:2023-05. 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: Kyle Renner (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iigwuus.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.