We provide an explanation for the stylized fact that poor households are concentrated in the inner city of most U.S. metropolitan areas. We consider a metropolitan area with an inner city surrounded by a suburb and two income classes. Using numerical simulations, we show that two equilibria typically exist: one in which the inner city has a majority of poor households and the other in which it has a majority of rich households. We argue that the growth path selects the former equilibrium because rich households "jump" to the suburb before poor households "spill" into the suburb. In addition, the model provides an explanation for gentrification: at large metropolitan populations, population growth causes rich households in the city to live in areas previously inhabited by poor households.
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Paper provided by University of Connecticut, Department of Economics in its series Working papers with number
2002-02.
Length: 59 pages Date of creation: Aug 2002 Date of revision:
May 2008 Handle: RePEc:uct:uconnp:2002-02
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Find related papers by JEL classification: H73 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Interjurisdictional Differentials and Their Effects R12 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography) R14 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
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Edward L. Glaeser & Matthew E. Kahn & Jordan Rappaport, 2000.
"Why Do the Poor Live in Cities?,"
NBER Working Papers
7636, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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