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Are people willing to pay for less segregation? Evidence from U.S. internal migration

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  • Zhang, Junfu
  • Zheng, Liang

Abstract

It is difficult to determine whether racial housing segregation is socially desirable, because segregation has some effects that are hard to measure. To overcome this challenge, we estimate a migration choice model to measure the willingness to pay for reduced segregation. The key idea underlying our empirical approach is that if segregation is undesirable, migrants should be willing to give up some earnings to avoid living in segregated cities. Using decennial census data from 1980 to 2000, we provide evidence that segregation is an urban disamenity. It is shown that both black and white migrants prefer to live in less segregated cities. For example, for a one percentage point reduction in the dissimilarity index, the estimated marginal willingness to pay of blacks is $436 (in 1999 dollars) in 2000. Among whites, this marginal willingness to pay is $301.

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  • Zhang, Junfu & Zheng, Liang, 2015. "Are people willing to pay for less segregation? Evidence from U.S. internal migration," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 97-112.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:regeco:v:53:y:2015:i:c:p:97-112
    DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2015.05.002
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    1. Edoh Y. Amiran & Joni S. James Charles, 2021. "Reconciling revealed and stated measures for willingness to pay in recreation by building a probability model," Papers 2107.14343, arXiv.org.
    2. Florent Dubois & Christophe Muller, 2017. "Segregation and the Perception of the Minority," AMSE Working Papers 1718, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    3. David C Maré & Ruth M Pinkerton & Jacques Poot, 2015. "Residential Assimilation of Immigrants: A Cohort Approach," Working Papers 15_20, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Residential segregation; Willingness to pay; Internal migration; Discrete choice model;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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