Calendrier du 30 juin 2020
Applied Economics Lunch Seminar
Du 30/06/2020 de 16:00 à 17:00
Zoom
DERENONCOURT Ellora (Berkeley)
Can you move to opportunity? Evidence from the Great Migration
This paper shows that racial composition shocks during the Great Migration (1940-1970) lowered black upward mobility in the northern United States. I identify northern black population increases using
a shift-share instrument, interacting pre-1940 black migrants’ location choices with predicted southern county out-migration. The Migration’s effects on children are driven by locational factors, not negative selection of families. Using data I assembled on destinations from 1920-2015, I show the Migration led to persistent segregation and higher police spending, crime, and incarceration from the 1960s onwards. The changes induced by the Migration explain 27% of the region’s racial upward mobility gap today.