Rising Inequality and Neighborhood Mixing – Metropolitan Futures Initiative

Article on Neighborhood mixing and rising inequality in Metro Areas

Kane, Kevin and John R. Hipp. (2019). “Rising Inequality and Neighborhood Mixing in U.S. Metro Areas.” Regional Studies. 53(12): 1680-1695.

Abstract: “Superstar cities with high-paying creative-class jobs, venture capital, and innovation are thought to be more unequal. We analyze mixing in neighbourhoods by income, education and occupation, relating this intra-urban measure with regional productivity indicators. Using non-overlapping census units and a machine-learning estimation technique that iterates over all combinations of economic, business, housing and cultural indicators, we identify ‘ingredients’ associated with economically and socially diverse neighbourhoods. Broad support is not found that neighbourhoods in superstar regions are less mixed; however, overrepresentation in creative occupations stymies mixing as does a combination of weak economic fundamentals with high shares of new housing.”

Read the Report on Rising Inequality and Neighborhood Mixing in Metropolitan Areas

This Report provides new insights into some of the spatial relationships involved in both neighborhood mixing and regional inequality through an investigation of 381 metropolitan areas in the U.S. in 2010 using advanced measurement strategies and analysis methods.

The study uses a novel neighborhood unit—egohoods—to measure the degree of mixing that occurs within the neighborhoods of these metropolitan areas. It measures mixing based on income, occupational status, and educational achievement.

We compare the level of mixing on these three dimensions across all metropolitan areas in the U.S. in 2010.

Below is a map showing the level of income mixing in neighborhoods for each of the metropolitan areas in the U.S.

Download the full report here.