IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/uqj8x.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Imperfect melting pot – analysis of changes in diversity and segregation of US urban census tracts in the period of 1990-2010

Author

Listed:
  • Stepinski, Tomasz
  • Dmowska, Anna

Abstract

Analyzing racial distribution and its temporal change in American urban areas is an active area of research. Most attention focused on assessing levels of racial segregation at the spatial scale of a metropolitan area. In this paper, we present an analysis of 1990-2010 changes to racial diversity and segregation on a much smaller spatial scale of an urban census tract. To access time-standardized racial information at the tract and at the census block scales we use multiyear compatible high-resolution population grids. Indices of racial diversity and segregation are calculated for over 30,000 tracts pooled from 41 metropolitan areas. Statistical analysis of this dataset reveals that during the 1990-2010 period urban tracts increased their diversity in line with diversity increases of entire metro areas, but unlike metros, they also increased their levels of segregation. We hypothesize that an increased tendency for the residences of people of the same race to spatially aggregate on the tract scale is the result of individuals exercising preferences regarding their neighbors in reaction to the nationwide increase in diversity of the American population. The study also re-derives diversity and segregation indices from the first principles of the information theory, highlights the need to think about the issue of racial diversity/segregation in terms of spatial patterns, and uses one-person-per-dot maps to connect diversity/segregation indices to actual racial patterns.

Suggested Citation

  • Stepinski, Tomasz & Dmowska, Anna, 2019. "Imperfect melting pot – analysis of changes in diversity and segregation of US urban census tracts in the period of 1990-2010," SocArXiv uqj8x, Center for Open Science.
  • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:uqj8x
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/uqj8x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/5ccc2d8900a8100017611cdd/
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/uqj8x?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. Oscar Volij & David Frankel, 2004. "Measuring Segregation," Econometric Society 2004 North American Summer Meetings 210, Econometric Society.
    2. Chad R. Farrell, 2008. "Bifurcation, Fragmentation or Integration? The Racial and Geographical Structure of US Metropolitan Segregation, 1990—2000," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(3), pages 467-499, March.
    3. Christopher S. Fowler & Barrett A. Lee & Stephen A. Matthews, 2016. "The Contributions of Places to Metropolitan Ethnoracial Diversity and Segregation: Decomposing Change Across Space and Time," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(6), pages 1955-1977, December.
    4. Kelvyn Jones & David Manley & Ron Johnston & Dewi Owen, 2018. "Modelling residential segregation as unevenness and clustering: A multilevel modelling approach incorporating spatial dependence and tackling the MAUP," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 45(6), pages 1122-1141, November.
    5. Richard Harris & Ron Johnston, 2018. "Measuring and modelling segregation – New concepts, new methods and new data," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 45(6), pages 999-1002, November.
    6. George Leckie & Rebecca Pillinger & Kelvyn Jones & Harvey Goldstein, 2012. "Multilevel Modeling of Social Segregation," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 37(1), pages 3-30, February.
    7. Claude Fischer & Gretchen Stockmayer & Jon Stiles & Michael Hout, 2004. "Distinguishing the geographic levels and social dimensions of U.S. metropolitan segregation, 1960–2000," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 41(1), pages 37-59, February.
    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. Christopher S. Fowler & Barrett A. Lee & Stephen A. Matthews, 2016. "The Contributions of Places to Metropolitan Ethnoracial Diversity and Segregation: Decomposing Change Across Space and Time," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(6), pages 1955-1977, December.
    2. Laura Tach & Barrett Lee & Michael Martin & Lauren Hannscott, 2019. "Fragmentation or Diversification? Ethnoracial Change and the Social and Economic Heterogeneity of Places," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(6), pages 2193-2227, December.
    3. Mariana C Arcaya & Gabriel Schwartz & SV Subramanian, 2018. "A multi-level modeling approach to understanding residential segregation in the United States," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 45(6), pages 1090-1105, November.
    4. Coral Río & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2010. "Gender Segregation in the Spanish Labor Market: An Alternative Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 98(2), pages 337-362, September.
    5. repec:cte:werepe:we077544 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Victor Ginsburgh & Shlomo Weber, 2016. "Linguistic Diversity, Standardization, and Disenfranchisement: Measurement and Consequences," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/277407, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    7. Federico Echenique & Roland G. Fryer Jr., 2005. "On the Measurement of Segregation," Labor and Demography 0503006, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Leah Platt Boustan & Robert A. Margo, 2011. "White Suburbanization and African-American Home Ownership, 1940-1980," NBER Working Papers 16702, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Olga Alonso-Villar & Coral del Río & Carlos Gradín, 2010. "The extent of occupational segregation in the US: Differences by race, ethnicity, and gender," Working Papers 180, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    10. Tal Modai-Snir & Pnina Plaut, 2019. "The analysis of residential sorting trends: Measuring disparities in socio-spatial mobility," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(2), pages 288-300, February.
    11. Hooper, Alison & Hustedt, Jason T. & Slicker, Gerilyn & Hallam, Rena A. & Gaviria-Loaiza, Juana & Vu, Jennifer A. & Han, Myae, 2022. "Area Deprivation Index as a predictor of economic risk and social and neighborhood perceptions among families enrolled in Early Head Start," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    12. David Frankel & Oscar Volij, 2005. "Scale-Invariant Measures of Segregation," Economic theory and game theory 018, Oscar Volij.
    13. Pierre Courtioux & Tristan-Pierre Maury, 2020. "Private and public schools: A spatial analysis of social segregation in France," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(4), pages 865-882, March.
    14. Boustan, Leah Platt, 2013. "Local public goods and the demand for high-income municipalities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 71-82.
    15. Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana, 2021. "Racial composition and trajectories of gentrification in the United States," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(13), pages 2721-2741, October.
    16. Richelle L. Winkler & Kenneth M. Johnson, 2016. "Moving Toward Integration? Effects of Migration on Ethnoracial Segregation Across the Rural-Urban Continuum," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(4), pages 1027-1049, August.
    17. Amber Crowell & Mark Fossett, 2022. "Metropolitan racial residential segregation in the United States: A microlevel and cross-context analysis of Black, Latino, and Asian segregation," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 46(8), pages 217-260.
    18. Leah Platt Boustan & Allison Shertzer, 2010. "Demography and Population Loss from Central Cities, 1950-2000," NBER Working Papers 16435, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Leah Platt Boustan, 2013. "Racial Residential Segregation in American Cities," NBER Working Papers 19045, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. de Almeida Lopes Fernandes, Gustavo Andrey, 2017. "Is the Brazilian Tale of Peaceful Racial Coexistence True? Some Evidence from School Segregation and the Huge Racial Gap in the Largest Brazilian City," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 179-194.
    21. Zhang, Yanji & Wang, Jiejing & Kan, Changcheng, 2022. "Temporal variation in activity-space-based segregation: A case study of Beijing using location-based service data," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).

    More about this item

    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:osf:socarx:uqj8x. 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: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    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.