Explaining Racial/Ethnic Gaps in Spatial Mismatch in the US: The Primacy of Racial Segregation

Abstract

Despite declines in racial segregation across most US metropolitan areas in recent years, racial and ethnic minorities still display uneven geographical access to jobs but consistently inferior to that of Whites. This article provides a detailed analysis of the factors driving racial and ethnic gaps in spatial mismatch conditions across US metropolitan areas. Using data primarily from the 1990 and 2000 US censuses, and the 1994 and 1999 US Department of Commerce's zip code business pattern files, descriptive, multivariate and decompositional evidence is generated to address why Blacks and to a lesser extent Latinos display greater degrees of spatial mismatch than Whites. The results indicate that, among many other factors including job sprawl, racial segregation in housing markets is the most important. The models indicate that racial differences in spatial mismatch conditions, particularly between Blacks and Whites, should be eliminated in 45–50 years if racial segregation levels continue to decline in the future at rates similar to those observed over the 1990s.