TY  - JOUR
AU  - Cutler,David M.
AU  - Glaeser,Edward L.
AU  - Vigdor,Jacob L.
TI  - When Are Ghettos Bad? Lessons from Immigrant Segregation in the United States
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13082
PY  - 2007
Y2  - May 2007
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13082
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13082.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
David M. Cutler
Department of Economics
Harvard University
1875 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA  02138
Tel: 617/496-5216
Fax: 617/496-8951
E-Mail: dcutler@harvard.edu

Edward L. Glaeser
Department of Economics
315A Littauer Center
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-0575
Fax: 617/495-7730
E-Mail: eglaeser@harvard.edu

Jacob L. Vigdor
Sanford School of Public Policy
Box 90245
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708
Tel: 919/613-9226
Fax: 919/681-8288
E-Mail: jacob.vigdor@duke.edu
AB  - Recent literature on the relationship between ethnic or racial segregation and outcomes has failed to produce a consensus view of the role of ghettos; some studies suggest that residence in an enclave is beneficial, some reach the opposite conclusion, and still others imply that any relationship is small.  This paper presents new evidence on this relationship using data on first-generation immigrants in the United States.  Using average group characteristics as instruments for segregation, controlling for individual characteristics and both metropolitan area and country-of-origin fixed effects, we estimate impacts of residential concentration that vary with group human capital levels.  Residential concentration can be beneficial, but primarily for more educated groups.  The mean impact of residential concentration varies across measures, which may illuminate some of the causal mechanisms relating segregation to outcomes.
ER  -