Can Participation Compensate for Policy Inequity? Evidence from Sidewalk Repairs

• In Event: Participation and Policy Responsiveness in Cities

Abstract

Is the provision of government services equitable, and can political participation solve existing inequities in service provision? Leveraging over-time data from the City of Boston, I evaluate the equity in provision of basic government services: the repair of sidewalks. I combine administrative data on the physical conditions of the city’s sidewalks with data on local residents’ use of the city’s 311 service request system to assess who is represented in local policy. I show that the quality of basic city service provision is far from equitable, but instead aligns with existing racial and socioeconomic divisions. Sidewalks in more heavily minority and less wealthy neighborhoods improve at a rate below those sidewalks in whiter and wealthier neighborhoods. However, participation can compensate for inequities in the improvement and deterioration of infrastructure. To the extent that residents in minority and low-income areas use 311 services to request repairs, their sidewalks improve at rates on par with those in whiter and wealthier places. Basic local government service provision can be subject to biases, but citizen participation may be one way to target policy to resolve these historical inequities.

Author

• Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, Boston University