Rules of Division: The Influence of Land Use Regulation on Income Segregation
Brief
Michael Lens | Paavo Monkkonen
November 2024
Income segregation in U.S. metropolitan areas has been rising for the last forty years. This is a concerning trend, since neighborhood social mix has been shown to have lifelong impacts on health, economic productivity, and behaviors such as propensity to commit crime. Although it is widely assumed that local land use regulations – such as minimum lot sizes and growth controls – exclude low-income households from wealthier neighborhoods and thus amplify segregation, the empirical research is limited. Using new statistical measures for the 95 biggest cities in the US, we investigate the relationship between land use regulations and segregation by income.
