John F. Kain

Housing Segregation, Negro Employment, and Metropolitan Decentralization

I. Negro residential segregation, 176. — II. Segregation in Detroit and Chicago, 178. — III. The distribution of negro employment, 179. — IV. Negro employment by occupation and industry, 183. — V. The level of nonwhite employment, 189. — VI. Suburbanization and negro employment, 191. — VII. Postwar dispersal of employment and population in Chicago, 192. — VIII. Conclusions, 196.

The Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis: Three Decades Later

Abstract This paper provides a comprehensive review of the extensive scholarly literature dealing with the effect of housing market discrimination on the employment and earnings of Afro‐American workers. From a historical perspective, it examines a variety of empirical studies that are as relevant today (particularly in light of recent events in Los Angeles) as they were when this discussion began nearly 30 years ago. More specifically, it reviews studies that have attempted to determine the extent to which serious limitations on black residential choice, combined with the steady dispersal of jobs from central cities, are responsible for the low rates of employment and low earnings of Afro‐American workers. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy recommendations and suggestions for continued areas of research. Three major categories in need of policy prescriptions are examined: housing, employment, and schooling. There is an assessment of the gains made since the inception of the spatial mismatch ...

Measuring the Value of Housing Quality

Abstract Based on an extensive sample of individual dwelling units, this article estimates the market value, or the implicit prices, of specific aspects of the bundles of residential services consumed by urban households. Quantitative estimates were obtained by regressing market price of owner- and renter-occupied dwelling units on measures of the qualitative and quantitative dimensions of the housing bundle. The measures of residential quality associated with individual dwelling units were obtained by using factor analysis to aggregate some 39 indexes of the quality of narrowly defined aspects of the dwelling units, structures, parcels, and micro-neighborhoods. The analysis indicates that the quality of the bundle of residential services has about as much effect on the price of housing as such objective aspects as the number of rooms, number of bathrooms, and lot size. The analysis also confirms the influence of neighborhood schools on the value of residential properties and indicates that rental propert...

New Evidence about "Brown v. Board of Education": The Complex Effects of School Racial Composition on Achievement.

Uncovering the effect of school racial composition is difficult because racial mixing is not accidental but instead an outcome of government and family choices. Using rich panel data on the achievement of Texas students, we disentangle racial composition effects from other aspects of school quality and from differences in abilities and family background. The estimates strongly indicate that a higher percentage of black schoolmates reduces achievement for blacks, while it implies a much smaller and generally insignificant effect on whites. These results suggest that existing levels of segregation in Texas explain a small but meaningful portion of the racial achievement gap.

Disruption versus Tiebout improvement: the costs and benefits of switching schools

Most students change schools at some point in their academic careers, but some change very frequently and some schools experience a great deal of turnover. Many researchers, teachers, and administrators argue that mobility harms students, particularly disadvantaged students in high turnover, inner city schools. On the other hand, economists emphasize the importance of Tiebout type moves to procure better school quality. Empirical research on mobility has yielded inconclusive results, no doubt in part because of small sample sizes and the difficulty of separating mobility effects from other confounding factors. This paper develops a general theoretical model that identifies school quality changes resulting from moving. The empirical analysis, which exploits the rich longitudinal data of the UTD Texas Schools Project, disentangles the disruption effects associated with moves from changes in school quality. The results suggest that there is a small average increase in school quality for district switchers, while there is no evidence that those switching schools within districts obtain higher school quality on average. Perhaps most important for policy, the results also show a significant externality from moves: students in schools with high turnover suffer a disadvantage, and the cost is largest for lower income and minority students who typically attend much higher turnover schools.

Inferring Program Effects for Special Populations: Does Special Education Raise Achievement for Students with Disabilities?

Most discussion of special education has centered on the costs of providing mandated programs for children with disabilities and not on their effectiveness. As in many other policy areas, inferring program effectiveness is difficult because students not in special education do not provide a good comparison group. By following students who move in and out of targeted programs, however, we are able to identify program effectiveness from changes over time in individual performance. We find that the average special education program significantly boosts mathematics achievement of special-education students, particularly those classified as learning-disabled or emotionally disturbed, while not detracting from regular-education students. These results are estimated quite precisely from models of students and school-by-grade-by-year fixed effects in achievement gains, and they are robust to a series of specification tests.

MOVING TO THE SUBURBS -- DO RELOCATING COMPANIES LEAVE THEIR BLACK EMPLOYEES BEHIND?.

This article examines the responses of black and white workers to their employers relocation from downtown Detroit to suburban Dearborn. Estimates of move and quit probabilities demonstrate that white employees whose commutes lengthened because of the relocation were more likely to move, but no more likely to quit, than white employees whose commute shortened. Black employees whose commutes lengthened were more likely to both move and quit in the wake of the relocation. In effect, the restrictions on black residential choice imposed by segregation forced approximately 11.3% of black workers to quit in the wake of the relocation.

COMMUTES, QUITS, AND MOVES

Abstract This paper analyzes the effects of commuting distance on quit and move propensities. In metropolitan areas with conventional wage and housing price gradients, most workers ordinarily move in order to lengthen commutes and quit in order to shorten them. However, quits and moves by workers whose residential choices are constrained by segregation should be relatively insensitive to commutes. Descriptive statistics and simultaneous probit estimates of move and quit propensities for white and black employees of a single firm confirm these predictions. They demonstrate that long commutes encourage white quits and discourage white moves. Commute increases of one standard deviation would increase white quit propensities and reduce white move propensities by approximately 10%. In contrast, commutes by black employees have no significant effects on their quit and move propensities.

SECRETS OF SUCCESS: ASSESSING THE LARGE INCREASES IN TRANSIT RIDERSHIP ACHIEVED BY HOUSTON AND SAN DIEGO TRANSIT PROVIDERS

This paper summarizes and updates the findings from an earlier study by the same authors of transit systems in Houston (all bus) and San Diego (bus and light rail). Both systems achieved unusually large increases in transit ridership during a period in which most transit systems in other metropolitan areas were experiencing large losses. Based on ridership models estimated using cross section and time series data, the paper quantifies the relative contributions of policy variables and factors beyond the control of transit operators on ridership growth. It is found that large ridership increases in both areas are caused principally by large service increases and fare reductions, as well as metropolitan employment and population growth. In addition, the paper provides careful estimates of total and operating costs per passenger boarding and per passenger mile for Houstons bus operator and San Diegos bus and light rail operators. These estimates suggest that the bus systems are more cost-effective than the light rail system on the basis of total costs. Finally, the paper carries out a series of policy simulations to analyze the effects of transit funding levels and metropolitan development patterns on transit ridership and farebox recovery ratio.

Evaluating the quality of the residential environment

This paper attempts to measure systematically the extent of blight in a single metropolitan area. Using a sample of individual dwelling units, the paper first describes a method of quantifying some previously neglected aspects of residential quality and demonstrates that they are highly valued by urban households. Secondly, it illustrates the feasibility of generalizing these quality measurements of sample dwellings to all city blocks using widely available explanatory variables. The analysis finds strong inferential evidence of an important, but elusive, relationship among the level of public services provided to particular dwelling units (police protection and schools), measures of residential quality, and the markets valuation of these units. The models described in this paper relate to an important range of urban renewal questions. For example, they can be used to obtain lower bound estimates of the potential benefits of urban renewal programs.