Abstract
Land-use regulations can restrict urban growth by increasing housing costs. This article investigates the heterogeneous effects of land-use regulations among different racial groups. It uses U.S. Census Bureau data from 202 U.S. metropolitan areas from 1980 to 2010 to investigate how land-use regulations affect changes in the share of African Americans in response to local economic demand. The research finds that highly regulated metropolitan areas experienced a much smaller increase (sometimes a decrease) in the share of African American workers in response to an increase in local labor demand. These results suggest that land-use regulations can restrict the urban growth of African Americans in areas with demand.
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