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Gender segregation within neighborhoods

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  • Caetano, Gregorio
  • Maheshri, Vikram

Abstract

Homophily generates segregation, which reduces diversity in peer groups and leads to narrower social interactions. Using novel data from Foursquare, a popular mobile app that documents the activity of millions of people, we document robust, highly localized gender segregation within neighborhoods: most venues (e.g., shops, restaurants, parks, museums) in eight major US cities are highly gender segregated, and over half of the gender segregation across cities occurs within Census blocks. This segregation is mostly driven by venue offerings, not discriminatory preferences. A higher variety of venues on a block attracts more gender-balanced visitors, but, perversely, more intense sorting across those venues ultimately leads to more segregated venues. Hence top-down approaches to facilitate diverse interactions may be counterproductive. We find similar results for segregation by age.

Suggested Citation

  • Caetano, Gregorio & Maheshri, Vikram, 2019. "Gender segregation within neighborhoods," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 253-263.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:regeco:v:77:y:2019:i:c:p:253-263
    DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2019.05.004
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    Cited by:

    1. Susan Athey & Billy A. Ferguson & Matthew Gentzkow & Tobias Schmidt, 2020. "Experienced Segregation," NBER Working Papers 27572, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Carolina Caetano & Gregorio Caetano & Hao Fe & Eric R. Nielsen, 2021. "A Dummy Test of Identification in Models with Bunching," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2021-068, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender segregation; Homophily; Peer groups; Urban sorting; Diversity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R1 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics
    • R2 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis
    • R3 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location
    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs

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