The Mystery of Concentrated Poverty: The Hidden Role of Cross-Race Income Segregation

A hallmark of concentrated poverty in American cities is often a high concentration of social ills – elevated crime rates, struggling schools, and high unemployment – that limit opportunity for residents and perpetuate cycles of poverty.

To address this issue, researchers have long sought to understand the causes of concentrated poverty in America’s cities. One prominent theory contends that poverty concentration is primarily a result of two factors. First, racial segregation is thought to separate racial groups with high levels of poverty, such as blacks and Hispanics, from groups with low levels of poverty. Second, intra-racial economic segregation is believed to further concentrate poverty as middle and upper-income blacks and Hispanics move from poor neighborhoods to more affluent areas. Researchers have so far been unable to confirm these theories using real-world data.

New research by Lincoln Quillian, however, not only verifies the importance of these two factors but also identifies another important factor that had previously gone unnoticed: the segregation of blacks and Hispanics from middle- and high-income members of other racial groups. In a paper titled “Segregation and Poverty Concentration: The Role of Three Segregations,” Quillian found that a key driver of poverty concentration is that blacks and Hispanics, regardless of their income level, are highly likely to have neighbors of other races who are disproportionately poor for their race.

Quillian’s research digs deep into detailed demographic and spatial characteristics of race and poverty, including the portion of the population that is black or Hispanic relative to other races in a city, poverty rates of other racial groups, and the likelihood of blacks or Hispanics having contact with poor members of their race and other races. Through analysis of these characteristics, Quillian finds a clearer, more nuanced set of factors driving concentrated poverty.

Quillian determines that different factors may be the primary drivers of concentrated poverty in different minority groups. His approach in modeling the factors of poverty concentration shows that racial segregation is by far the most important factor driving concentrated poverty among blacks, mainly because blacks have much higher rates of segregation than other groups. This approach also shows that racial segregation plays a smaller role in concentrating poverty among Hispanic populations as Hispanics, on average, are more likely to live in less segregated neighborhoods alongside poor populations of other races.

For policymakers engaged in the fight against urban poverty, Quillian’s research suggests that policymakers should target the underlying drivers of poverty in different communities based on their unique characteristics. It also cautions against focusing only on preventing racial segregation to reduce concentrated poverty, suggesting that, depending on neighborhood circumstances, cross-race poverty may play a larger role in poverty concentration than was previously thought.

Feature Photo: cc/michele cat