We present a model of the interaction of segregation and suburbanization in determining residential location. The model incorporates differential income between two classes of agents, a simplified market mechanism for the purchase of housing, and a simple geographic structure of one central city and four symmetrically arranged suburbs. Agents derive utility from neighborhood racial composition, the size of their lot, private amenities that are specific to neighborhoods, and public amenities that stretch across municipalities. We find that the public-amenities term leads to a positive-feedback loop in which migration to suburbs increases the public amenities in those municipalities while lowering amenities in the central city, thus sparking further migration. When the minority agents are uniformly less affluent than the majority agents, this dynamic produces discontinuity in segregation as measured by centralization. Such discontinuities are typical of first-order phase transitions. When minority and majority incomes overlap, significant regions appear over which there are multistable equilibria at high and low levels of segregation, along with considerable sensitivity to the initial distribution of minority agents. We discuss the implications of these findings.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AndersonH S, 2003Urban Sores: On the Interaction Between Segregation, Urban Decay and Deprived Neighborhoods (Ashgate, Aldershot, Hants)
2.
ArthurW B, 1994Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy (University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI)
3.
BattyM, 2006, “Rank clocks”Nature444592–596
4.
BattyM, 2007Cities and Complexity: Understanding Cities With Cellular Automata, Agent-based Models and Fractals (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA)
5.
BayohIIrwinE GHaabT, 2006, “Determinants of residential location choice: How important are local public goods in attracting homeowners to central city locations?”Journal of Regional Science4697–120
6.
BenardSWillerR, 2007, “A wealth and status based model of segregation”The Journal of Mathematical Sociology31149–174
7.
BenensonIOmerIHatnaE, 2002, “Entity-based modeling of urban residential dynamics: The case of Yaffo, Tel Aviv”Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design29491–512
FarleyRFreyW H, 1994, “Changes in the segregation of whites from blacks during the 1980s: Small steps toward a more integrated society”American Sociological Review5923–45
16.
FischerM JMasseyD S, 2000, “Residential segregation and ethnic enterprise in US metropolitan areas”Social Problems47408–424
17.
FloridaR, 2008Who's Your City? How the Creative Economy is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life (Basic Books, New York)
18.
FossettM, 2006, “Ethnic preferences, social distance dynamics and residential segregation: Theoretical explorations using simulation analysis”The Journal of Mathematical Sociology30(3–4) 185–273
19.
FreyW H, 1979, “Central city white flight: Racial and non-racial causes”American Sociological Review44425–448
20.
GalsterG, 1990, “White flight from racially integrated neighborhoods in the 1970s: The Cleveland experience”Urban Studies27385–399
21.
KittelCKroemerH, 1980Thermal Physics2nd edition (W H Freeman, San Francisco, CA)
22.
LimMMetzlerRBar-YamY, 2007, “Global pattern formation and ethnic/cultural violence”Science3171540–1544
23.
McLoughlinS, 2005, “Mosques and the public space: Conflict and cooperation in Bradford”Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies311045–1066
24.
MacyM WVan de RijtA, 2006, “Ethnic preferences and residential segregation: Theoretical explorations beyond Detroit”Journal of Mathematical Sociology30(3–4) 275–288
25.
MaloutasTKaradimitriouN, 2001, “Vertical social differentiation in Athens: Alternative or complement to community segregation?”International Journal of Urban and Regional Research25699–716
26.
MasseyD SDentonN A, 1988, “The dimensions of racial segregation”Social Forces67281–315
27.
MasseyD SDentonN A, 1993American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA)
MieszkowskiPMillsE, 1993, “The causes of metropolitan suburbanization”Journal of Economic Perspectives7135–147
30.
MillerJ HPageS E, 2006Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ)
31.
MortonM J, 2002, “The suburban ideal and suburban realities: Cleveland Heights, Ohio, 1860–2001”Journal of Urban History28671–698
32.
NechybaT JWalshR P, 2004, “Urban sprawl”Journal of Economic Perspectives18(4) 177–200
33.
NeckermanKTorcheF, 2007, “Inequality: Causes and consequences”Annual Review of Sociology33335–357
34.
NydenPMalyNLukehartJ, 1997, “The emergence of stable racially and ethically diverse communities: A case study of neighborhoods in nine US cities”Housing Policy Debate8491–534
35.
OatesW E, 1969, “Effects of property taxes and local public spending on property values: Empirical study of tax capitalization and Tiebout hypothesis”Journal of Political Economy77957–971
36.
OrfieldM, 2003American Metropolitics: The New Suburban Reality (Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC)
RuskD, 1996Cities Without Suburbs (Woodrow Wilson Center Press, Washington, DC)
39.
RuskD, 2006, “Social framework: Sprawl, race, and concentrated poverty—changing the ‘rules of the game’”, in Urban Sprawl: A Comprehensive Resource Guide Ed. SouleD C (Greenwood Press, Westport, CT) pp 90–102
40.
SchellingT, 1969, “Model of segregation”American Economic Review59488–493
41.
SchellingT, 1978Micromotives and Macrobehavior (Norton, New York)
42.
SquiresG DKubrinC E, 2005, “Privileged places: Race, uneven development and the geography of opportunity in urban America”Urban Studies4247–68
43.
TieboutC M, 1956, “A pure theory of local expenditures”Journal of Political Economy64416–424
44.
TorrensP M, 2007, “A geographic automata model of residential mobility”Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design34200–222
