文档介绍：WAS POSTWAR SUBURBANIZATION “WHITE FLIGHT”?
EVIDENCE FROM THE BLACK MIGRATION∗
LEAH PLATT BOUSTAN
Residential segregation by jurisdiction generates disparities in public services
and education. The distinctive American pattern—in which blacks live in cities
and whites in suburbs—was enhanced by a large black migration from the rural
South. I show that whites responded to this black influx by leaving cities and rule
out an indirect effect on housing prices as a sole cause. I instrument for changes
in black population by using local economic conditions to predict black migration
from southern states and assigning predicted flows to northern cities according to
established settlement patterns. The best causal estimates imply that each black
arrival led to white departures.
I. INTRODUCTION
American metropolitan areas are segregated by race, both
by neighborhood and across jurisdiction lines. In 1980, after a
century of suburbanization, 72% of metropolitan blacks lived in
central cities, compared to 33% of metropolitan whites. Because
many public goods are locally financed, segregation between
the central city and the suburbs can generate disparities in
access to education and other public services (Benabou 1996;
Bayer, McMillan, and Rueben 2005). These local disparities
have motivated large policy changes over the past fifty years,
including school finance equalization plans within states and
federal expenditures on education.
Racial segregation by jurisdiction has historical roots in two
population flows: black migration from the rural South and white
relocation from central cities to suburban rings. Both flows peaked
during World War II and the subsequent decades. Between 1940
and 1970, four million black migrants left the South, increasing
∗I appreciate helpful suggestions from Edward Glaeser (the editor), two
anonymous referees, my mittee (Claudia Goldin, Caroline Hoxby,
Lawrence Katz, and Robert A. Margo), and numerous colleagues