Change in Racial and Ethnic Residential Inequality in American Cities, 1970 to 2000

Jeffrey M. Timberlake, University of Cincinnati

Scholars interested in racial and ethnic residential inequality frequently focus on intercensal change in levels of segregation. However, prior scholarship has not estimated effects of theoretically important variables on changes in segregation over a relatively long period of time. In this paper I use hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) techniques to estimate segregation growth trajectories for a sample of U.S. cities from 1970 to 2000. In these models, repeated observations of urban areas, comprising metropolitan areas, central cities, and suburban rings, are nested within those areas. The results will provide estimates of four indicators of segregation in 2000 and the city-level predictors of those indicators. In addition, HLM enables the estimation of 1970 to 2000 change in segregation, as well as the predictors of that change. In the process, I test hypotheses about the causes of static and dynamic variation in racial and ethnic residential inequality.