Working Paper Revision
The Impact of Racial Segregation on College Attainment in Spatial Equilibrium
Abstract: This paper seeks to understand the forces that maintain racial segregation and the implications for the Black-White gap in college attainment. We incorporate race into an overlapping-generations spatial-equilibrium model with neighborhood spillovers. The model incorporates race in three ways: (i) a Black-White wage gap, (ii) an amenity externality---households care about the racial composition of their neighbors---and (iii) an additional barrier to moving for Black households. These forces quantitatively account for all of the racial segregation and 80% of the Black-White gap in college attainment in the data for the St. Louis metro area. Counterfactual exercises show that all three forces are quantitatively important. The presence of spillovers and externalities generates multiple equilibria. Although St. Louis is in the segregated equilibrium, there also exists an integrated equilibrium with a lower college gap, and we analyze a transition path between the two.
Keywords: racial disparities; neighborhood segregation; education; income inequality;
JEL Classification: J15; J24; O18;
https://doi.org/10.20955/wp.2022.036
Access Documents
File(s):
File format is application/pdf
https://s3.amazonaws.com/real.stlouisfed.org/wp/2022/2022-036.pdf
Description: Full text
Bibliographic Information
Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Part of Series: Working Papers
Publication Date: 2023-07-24
Number: 2022-036
Related Works
- Working Paper Revision (2024-11-27) : The Impact of Racial Segregation on College Attainment in Spatial Equilibrium
- Working Paper Revision (2024-05-06) : The Impact of Racial Segregation on College Attainment in Spatial Equilibrium
- Working Paper Revision (2023-07-24) : You are here.
- Working Paper Revision (2023-07-13) : The Impact of Racial Segregation on College Attainment in Spatial Equilibrium
- Working Paper Original (2022-10-12) : The Impact of Racial Segregation on College Attainment in Spatial Equilibrium