IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v13y2022i1d10.1038_s41467-022-33344-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Quantifying ethnic segregation in cities through random walks

Author

Listed:
  • Sandro Sousa

    (Queen Mary University of London
    IT University of Copenhagen)

  • Vincenzo Nicosia

    (Queen Mary University of London)

Abstract

Socioeconomic segregation has an important role in the emergence of large-scale inequalities in urban areas. Most of the available measures of spatial segregation depend on the scale and size of the system under study, or neglect large-scale spatial correlations, or rely on ad-hoc parameters, making it hard to compare different systems on equal grounds. We propose here a family of non-parametric measures for spatial distributions, based on the statistics of the trajectories of random walks on graphs associated to a spatial system. These quantities provide a consistent estimation of segregation in synthetic spatial patterns, and we use them to analyse the ethnic segregation of metropolitan areas in the US and the UK. We show that the spatial diversity of ethnic distributions, as measured through diffusion on graphs, allow us to compare the ethnic segregation of urban areas having different size, shape, or peculiar microscopic characteristics, and exhibits a strong association with socio-economic deprivation.

Suggested Citation

  • Sandro Sousa & Vincenzo Nicosia, 2022. "Quantifying ethnic segregation in cities through random walks," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-33344-3
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33344-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33344-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-022-33344-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Antonio Rodriguez-Moral & Marc Vorsatz, 2016. "An Overview of the Measurement of Segregation: Classical Approaches and Social Network Analysis," Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, in: Pasquale Commendatore & Mariano Matilla-García & Luis M. Varela & Jose S. Cánovas (ed.), Complex Networks and Dynamics, pages 93-119, Springer.
    2. David Wong & Shih-Lung Shaw, 2011. "Measuring segregation: an activity space approach," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 127-145, June.
    3. James Sakoda, 1981. "A generalized index of dissimilarity," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 18(2), pages 245-250, May.
    4. Coralio Ballester & Marc Vorsatz, 2014. "Random Walk-Based Segregation Measures," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(3), pages 383-401, July.
    5. Kelvyn Jones & Ron Johnston & David Manley & Dewi Owen & Chris Charlton, 2015. "Ethnic Residential Segregation: A Multilevel, Multigroup, Multiscale Approach Exemplified by London in 2011," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(6), pages 1995-2019, December.
    6. Federico Echenique & Roland G. Fryer, 2007. "A Measure of Segregation Based on Social Interactions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(2), pages 441-485.
    7. Ana Petrović & Maarten van Ham & David Manley, 2018. "Multiscale Measures of Population: Within- and between-City Variation in Exposure to the Sociospatial Context," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 108(4), pages 1057-1074, July.
    8. Benjamin Golub & Matthew O. Jackson, 2012. "How Homophily Affects the Speed of Learning and Best-Response Dynamics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(3), pages 1287-1338.
    9. Sean Reardon & Stephen Matthews & David O’Sullivan & Barrett Lee & Glenn Firebaugh & Chad Farrell & Kendra Bischoff, 2008. "The geographic scale of Metropolitan racial segregation," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 45(3), pages 489-514, August.
    10. Sergio Rey & Richard Smith, 2013. "A spatial decomposition of the Gini coefficient," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 6(2), pages 55-70, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthew Quick & Nick Revington, 2022. "Exploring the global and local patterns of income segregation in Toronto, Canada: A multilevel multigroup modeling approach," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 49(2), pages 637-653, February.
    2. Umut Türk & John Östh, 2023. "Introducing a spatially explicit Gini measure for spatial segregation," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 469-488, October.
    3. Matthew Gentzkow & Jesse M. Shapiro & Matt Taddy, 2019. "Measuring Group Differences in High‐Dimensional Choices: Method and Application to Congressional Speech," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(4), pages 1307-1340, July.
    4. Lévêque, Christophe & Saleh, Mohamed, 2018. "Does industrialization affect segregation? Evidence from nineteenth-century Cairo," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 40-61.
    5. Gordon Anderson & Oliver Linton & Jasmin Thomas, 2017. "Similarity, dissimilarity and exceptionality: generalizing Gini’s transvariation to measure “differentness” in many distributions," METRON, Springer;Sapienza Università di Roma, vol. 75(2), pages 161-180, August.
    6. Frankel, David M. & Volij, Oscar, 2011. "Measuring school segregation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 146(1), pages 1-38, January.
    7. Yukio Sadahiro, 2015. "A method for analyzing the segregation between point distributions: statistical tests and consideration of attributes," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 29-60, January.
    8. Oscar Volij & David Frankel, 2004. "Measuring Segregation," Econometric Society 2004 North American Summer Meetings 210, Econometric Society.
    9. Till Baldenius & Nicolas Koch & Hannah Klauber & Nadja Klein, 2023. "Heat increases experienced racial segregation in the United States," Papers 2306.13772, arXiv.org.
    10. Casilda Vega & Oscar Volij, 2014. "Segregation, informativeness and Lorenz dominance," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 43(3), pages 547-564, October.
    11. Fei Li & Donggen Wang, 2017. "Measuring urban segregation based on individuals’ daily activity patterns: A multidimensional approach," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(2), pages 467-486, February.
    12. Isabel Melguizo, 2019. "Homophily and the Persistence of Disagreement," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(619), pages 1400-1424.
    13. Logan, Trevon D. & Parman, John M., 2017. "The National Rise in Residential Segregation," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 77(1), pages 127-170, March.
    14. Matthew Hall & John Iceland & Youngmin Yi, 2019. "Racial Separation at Home and Work: Segregation in Residential and Workplace Settings," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 38(5), pages 671-694, October.
    15. Lisa D. Cook & Trevon D. Logan & John M. Parman, 2018. "Rural Segregation and Racial Violence: Historical Effects of Spatial Racism," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(3-4), pages 821-847, May.
    16. William AV Clark & John Östh, 2018. "Measuring isolation across space and over time with new tools: Evidence from Californian metropolitan regions," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 45(6), pages 1038-1054, November.
    17. Wong, David W.S. & Das Gupta, Debasree, 2023. "Empirical evidence supporting the inclusion of multi-axes segregation in assessing US county health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 339(C).
    18. Eva K. Andersson & Torkild Hovde Lyngstad & Bart Sleutjes, 2018. "Comparing Patterns of Segregation in North-Western Europe: A Multiscalar Approach," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 34(2), pages 151-168, May.
    19. David C. Maré & Jacques Poot, 2019. "Commuting to diversity," Working Papers 19_20, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    20. Shen, Yao, 2019. "Segregation through space: A scope of the flow-based spatial interaction model," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 10-23.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-33344-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.