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The Political Economy of State Fair-Housing Laws Prior to 1968

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  • William J. Collins

    (Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University; NBER; Model-Okun Fellow of Brookings Institution)

Abstract

The confluence of the Great Migration and the Civil Rights Movement propelled the drive for "fair-housing" legislation which attempted to curb overt discrimination in housing markets. This drive culminated in the passage of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1968. By that time, 57 percent of the U.S. population and 41 percent of the African-American population already resided in states with a fair-housing law. Despite laying the political and administrative groundwork for the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968, the origins and diffusion of these state laws have not received much attention from scholars, let alone been subject to statistical efforts to disentangle multiple influences. This paper uses hazard models to analyze the diffusion of fair-housing legislation to shed new light on the combination of economic and political forces that facilitated the laws' adoption. Ceteris paribus, outside the South, states with larger union memberships, more Jewish residents, and more NAACP members passed fair-housing laws sooner than others. The estimated effects are not undermined by including controls for a variety of competing factors and are supported by historical accounts of the legislative campaigns.

Suggested Citation

  • William J. Collins, 2004. "The Political Economy of State Fair-Housing Laws Prior to 1968," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers 0413, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:van:wpaper:0413
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    3. Leigh, Wilhelmina A, 1988. "The Social Preference for Fair Housing: During the Civil Rights Movement and Since," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(2), pages 156-162, May.
    4. Wright, Gavin, 1999. "The Civil Rights Revolution as Economic History," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 59(2), pages 267-289, June.
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    7. Leo Troy, 1957. "Union Membership, 1939 and 1953," NBER Chapters, in: Distribution of Union Membership among the States, 1939 and 1953, pages 1-16, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Discrimination; Segregation; Civil Rights;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R0 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General

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