Geographic Racial Composition and Businesses and Employment Opportunities

• In Event: 127 - Section on Inequality, Poverty and Mobility Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Paper Session: Table 18. Neighborhoods and Inequality

Abstract

Abstract: While Small and McDermott (2012) locate an association between racial composition and a subset of business establishments they conceptualize as organizational resources, this project examines whether or not that same relationship exists between the racial composition of a geographic area and the number of all types of business establishments, as well as jobs thereof. Using data from the 2000 and 2010 Census, the 2011 American Community Survey 5 year Summary file, and the 2000 and 2011 U.S. Census Zip Code Business Patterns datasets, this paper finds that changes in percent black, percent white, and percent foreign born are all marginally associated with changes in the number of business establishments and the number of jobs from 2000 to 2011. Percent black is the strongest predictor and this relationship is not driven by changes in the average aggregate income of a given zip code.

Author

• Janeria Easley, Princeton University