The Role of Social Connections in the Racial Segregation of US Cities

We study the extent of segregation in the social space of urban America. We measure segregation as the (lack of) actual personal connections between neighbourhoods as opposed to conventional measures that assume the strength of these connections. We distinguish social segregation from geographical definitions of segregation, building and comparing city-level indices of each. We apply our measures to the 75 largest MSAs in the USA. Cities like Miami, Washington DC, and Cincinnati rank higher in social segregation than they do based on the conventional residential isolation, while New Orleans, San Francisco, and Richmond fall in ranks. Conditional on residential segregation, cities with more institutions that foster social cohesion (churches and community associations) are less socially segregated. Looking at within-city variation across neighbourhoods, growing up more socially exposed to non-White neighbourhoods is related to various adulthood outcomes (jailed, income rank, married, and non-migrant) for Black individuals. Social exposure to non-White neighbourhoods is related to worsening adulthood outcomes in neighbourhoods that are majority non-White. Our results suggest that social connections, beyond residential location or other spatial relationships, are important for understanding the effective segregation of race in America.