Residential Diversity and Exposure Segregation in US neighborhoods

• In Event: Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 6. Inequality in Housing and Neighborhoods

Abstract

Research has identified race and class differences in mobility patterns, contributing to economic segregation in the social exposures of individuals and connections between neighborhoods. This study aims to understand how neighborhood residential diversity relates to economic exposure segregation. Using a dataset of individual cell phone mobility patterns, I construct a measure of neighborhood-level economic exposure segregation, and I disaggregate this into measures of within-neighborhood (neighbor-to-neighbor) and between-neighborhood (neighbor-to-non-neighbor) exposure segregation. I then examine the cross-sectional associations between residential economic and racial diversity to economic exposure segregation. The results find different relationships between residential economic diversity and exposure segregation based on how economic diversity is measured: using a measure of economic diversity that considers all income groups, increased economic diversity is associated with lower exposure segregation overall and within neighborhoods. When only considering residential mixing between high and low-income groups, economic diversity is associated with higher exposure segregation overall and within neighborhoods. Neither measure of economic diversity is associated with between-neighborhood exposure segregation. Racial diversity is associated with lower overall and between-neighborhood exposure segregation, but higher within-neighborhood exposure segregation. Racial diversity also attenuates the negative relationship between economic diversity and exposure segregation. The results point to a complex and nuanced relationship between residential diversity and economic exposure segregation, with increased residential diversity only reducing exposure segregation under certain conditions.

Author

• Sarah-Eve Dill, Stanford University