Moving to the Suburbs: Do Relocating Companies Leave Their Black Employees Behind?

This article examines the responses of black and white workers to their employer's relocation from downtown Detroit to suburban Dearborn. Estimates of move and quit probabilities demonstrate that white employees whose commutes lengthened because of the relocation were more likely to move, but no more likely to quit, than white employees whose commute shortened. Black employees whose commutes lengthened were more likely to both move and quit in the wake of the relocation. In effect, the restrictions on black residential choice imposed by segregation forced approximately 11.3 percent of black workers to quit in the wake of the relocation. Copyright 1996 by University of Chicago Press.