School choice increases racial segregation even when parents do not care about race.

This research examines how school choice impacts school segregation. Specifically, this work demonstrates that even if parents do not take the racial demographics of schools into account, preference differences between Black and White parents for other school attributes can still result in segregation. These preference differences stem from motivational differences in pursuit of social status. Given that the de facto US racial hierarchy assigns Black people to a lower social status, Black parents are more motivated to seek schools that signal that they can improve their children's status. Simulations of parental school decisions at scale show that preference differences under an unmitigated school-choice policy lead to more segregated schools, impacting more than half a million US children for every 3-percentage-point increase in school-choice availability. In contrast, if Black and White parents have similar preferences, unmitigated school choice would reduce racial segregation. This research may inform public policy concerning school choice and school segregation.

Older Black Americans During COVID-19: Race and Age Double Jeopardy.

The concept of "double jeopardy"-being both older and Black-describes how racism and ageism together shape higher risks for coronavirus exposure, COVID-19 disease, and poor health outcomes for older Black adults. Black people and older adults are the two groups most affected by COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. Double jeopardy, as a race- and age-informed analysis, demonstrates how Black race and older age are associated with practices and policies that shape key life circumstances (e.g., racial residential segregation, family and household composition) and resources in ways that embody elevated risk for COVID-19. The concept of double jeopardy underscores long-standing race- and age-based inequities and social vulnerabilities that produce devastating COVID-19 related deaths and injuries for older Black adults. Developing policies and actions that address race- and age-based inequities and social vulnerabilities can lower risks and enhance protective factors to ensure the health of older Black Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Income Segregation: Up or Down, and for Whom?

Reports of rising income segregation in the United States have been brought into question by the observation that post-2000 estimates are upwardly biased because of a reduction in the sample sizes on which they are based. Recent studies have offered estimates of this sample-count bias using public data. We show here that there are two substantial sources of systematic bias in estimating segregation levels: bias associated with sample size and bias associated with using weighted sample data. We rely on new correction methods using the original census sample data for individual households to provide more accurate estimates. Family income segregation rose markedly in the 1980s but only selectively after 1990. For some categories of families, segregation declined after 1990. There has been an upward trend for families with children but not specifically for families with children in the upper or lower 10% of the income distribution. Separate analyses by race/ethnicity show that income segregation was not generally higher among Blacks and Hispanics than among White families, and evidence of income segregation trends for these separate groups is mixed. Income segregation increased for all three racial groups for families with children, particularly for Hispanics (but not Whites or Blacks) in the upper 10% of the income distribution. Trends vary for specific combinations of race/ethnicity, presence of children, and location in the income distribution, offering new challenges for understanding the underlying processes of change.

Relationship of neighborhood social determinants of health on racial/ethnic mortality disparities in US veterans-Mediation and moderating effects.

OBJECTIVE: To examine mediation and moderation of racial/ethnic all-cause mortality disparities among Veteran Health Administration (VHA)-users by neighborhood deprivation and residential segregation. DATA SOURCES: Electronic medical records for 10/2008-9/2009 VHA-users linked to National Death Index, 2000 Area Deprivation Index, and 2006-2009 US Census. STUDY DESIGN: Racial/ethnic groups included American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN), Asian, non-Hispanic black, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander, and non-Hispanic white (reference). We measured neighborhood deprivation by Area Deprivation Index, calculated segregation for non-Hispanic black, Hispanic, and AI/AN using the Isolation Index, evaluated mediation using inverse odds-weighted Cox regression models and moderation using Cox regression models testing for neighborhood*race/ethnicity interactions. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Mortality disparities existed for AI/ANs (HR = 1.07, 95%CI:1.01-1.10) but no other groups after covariate adjustment. Neighborhood deprivation and Hispanic segregation neither mediated nor moderated AI/AN disparities. Non-Hispanic black segregation both mediated and moderated AI/AN disparities. The AI/AN vs. non-Hispanic white disparity was attenuated for AI/ANs living in neighborhoods with greater non-Hispanic black segregation (P = .047). Black segregation's mediating effect was limited to VHA-users living in counties with low black segregation. AI/AN segregation also mediated AI/AN mortality disparities in counties that included or were near AI/AN reservations. CONCLUSIONS: Neighborhood characteristics, particularly black and AI/AN residential segregation, may contribute to AI/AN mortality disparities among VHA-users, particularly in communities that were rural, had greater black segregation, or were located on or near AI/AN reservations. This suggests the importance of neighborhood social determinants of health on racial/ethnic mortality disparities. Living near reservations may allow AI/AN VHA-users to maintain cultural and tribal ties, while also providing them with access to economic and other resources. Future research should explore the experiences of AI/ANs living in black communities and underlying mechanisms to identify targets for intervention.

Gender Segregation, Occupational Sorting, and Growth of Wage Disparities Between Women.

Average female wages in traditionally male occupations have steeply risen over the past couple of decades in Germany. This trend led to a new and substantial pay gap between women working in male-typed occupations and other women. I dissect the emergence of these wage disparities between women, using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1992-2015). Compositional change with respect to education is the main driver for growing inequality. Other factors are less influential but still relevant: marginal returns for several wage-related personal characteristics have grown faster in male-typed occupations. Net of individual-level heterogeneity, traditionally male occupations have also become more attractive because of rising returns to task-specific skills. Discrimination of women in typically male lines of work seems to have declined, too, which erased part of the wage penalty these women had previously experienced. In sum, I document changes in the occupational sorting behavior of women as well as shifts in occupation-level reward mechanisms that have had a profound impact on the state of inequality between working women.

Racial Segregation and Intraventricular Hemorrhage in Preterm Infants.

BACKGROUND: Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) disproportionately affects black neonates. Other conditions that are more common in black neonates, including low birth weight and preterm delivery, have been linked with residential racial segregation (RRS). In this study, we investigated the association between RRS and IVH. METHODS: A retrospective cohort of neonates born between 24 and 32 weeks' gestation was constructed by using birth certificates linked to medical records from California, Missouri, and Pennsylvania between 1995 and 2009. Dissimilarity, a measure of RRS indicating the proportion of minorities in the census tract of the mother in comparison to the larger metropolitan area, was linked to patient data, yielding a cohort of 70 775 infants. Propensity score analysis matched infants born to mothers living in high segregation to those living in less segregated areas on the basis of race, sociodemographic factors, and medical comorbidities to compare the risk of developing IVH. RESULTS: Infants born to mothers in the most segregated quartile had a greater risk of developing IVH compared with those in the lowest quartile (12.9% vs 10.4%; P < .001). In 17 918 pairs matched on propensity scores, the risk of developing IVH was greater in the group exposed to a segregated environment (risk ratio = 1.08, 95% confidence interval: 1.01-1.15). This effect was stronger for black infants alone (risk ratio = 1.16; 95% confidence interval: 1.03-1.30). CONCLUSIONS: RRS is associated with an increased risk of IVH in preterm neonates, but the effect size varies by race. This association persists after balancing for community factors and birth weight, representing a novel risk factor for IVH.

Occupational gender segregation and economic growth in U.S. local labor markets, 1980 through 2010.

The exchange of diverse ideas has been shown to be a major driver of economic growth and innovation in local labor markets across the U.S. Yet, persistently high levels of occupational gender segregation pose a barrier to such exchange between women and men workers. Consistent with this, organizational sociologists have identified multiple economic benefits to gender diversity in workplaces. Yet, it is unclear whether these trends apply to local labor markets, which constitute the ecological geographic environment for firms. In this study, I use fixed effects regression models to examine the relationship between labor market levels of segregation and economic growth from 1980 through 2010. I find that gender segregation hinders the expansion of finance and technology sectors as two industries that rely on the exchange of information and innovation. Consequently, higher levels of gender segregation are also a bane to economic productivity, as measured through hourly wages. Results from this study suggest that gender equity, manifested in lower levels of occupational segregation, is a vital ingredient in the economic development of local U.S. labor markets.

Fragmentation or Diversification? Ethnoracial Change and the Social and Economic Heterogeneity of Places.

Our study investigates the diversification and fragmentation theses, fueled by claims that greater diversity is reshaping the social fabric of American life and that the United States is an increasingly fragmented nation. We take a multidimensional view of heterogeneity that considers whether growing ethnoracial diversity within U.S. communities (i.e., incorporated and unincorporated places) has resulted in the consolidation or differentiation of demographic, sociocultural, and economic distinctions between 1980 and 2010. As communities have become more ethnoracially diverse, they have become more heterogeneous in language and nativity-two characteristics tied closely to Latino and Asian population growth. However, ethnoracial diversity within communities is only weakly associated with household, age, educational, occupational, or income heterogeneity despite large racial/ethnic differences in these characteristics nationally. This trend does not apply to all forms of ethnoracial diversity equally: Hispanic and especially Asian population growth is more likely to generate community sociodemographic and economic heterogeneity than is black population growth. Consistent with the fragmentation hypothesis, we also find that broader geographic context matters, with more ethnoracially diverse metropolitan and micropolitan areas experiencing reduced social and economic heterogeneity inside their constituent places. We conclude by discussing the social implications of these patterns for intergroup relations, spatial exclusion, and ethnoracial inequality.

Measuring racial segregation in health system networks using the dissimilarity index.

Racial disparities in the end-of-life treatment of patients are a well observed fact of the U.S. healthcare system. Less is known about how the physicians treating patients at the end-of-life influence the care received. Social networks have been widely used to study interactions with the healthcare system using physician patient-sharing networks. In this paper, we propose an extension of the dissimilarity index (DI), classically used to study geographic racial segregation, to study differences in patient care patterns in the healthcare system. Using the proposed measure, we quantify the unevenness of referrals (sharing) by physicians in a given region by their patients' race and how this relates to the treatments they receive at the end-of-life in a cohort of Medicare fee-for-service patients with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. We apply the measure nationwide to physician patient-sharing networks, and in a sub-study comparing four regions with similar racial distribution, Washington, DC, Greenville, NC, Columbus, GA, and Meridian, MS. We show that among regions with similar racial distribution, a large dissimilarity index in a region (Washington, DC DI = 0.86 vs. Meridian, MS DI = 0.55), which corresponds to more distinct referral networks for black and white patients by the same physician, is correlated with black patients with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias receiving more aggressive care at the end-of-life (including ICU and ventilator use), and less aggressive quality care (early hospice care).

Medicare' Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program and Community Diversity in the United States: The Need to Account for Racial and Ethnic Segregation.

This study investigated the association between community diversity within hospitals' referral region (HRR) and hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) incident rate among adults ages ≥ 65 years. HRR level (n = 274) HACs were examined and the analysis showed that high diverse communities (OR 1.48, 95% CI [1.15,1.91]) had higher adjusted odds than low diverse communities to score poorly on Domain 2, and increased odds of scoring poor on overall total HAC score. Although hospital quality of care is not intentionally segregated, its surrounding community is impacting its performance, thus policymakers need to accommodate the diversity of communities when developing pay-for-performance or merit-based initiatives.

Schools are segregated by educational outcomes in the digital space.

The Internet provides students with a unique opportunity to connect and maintain social ties with peers from other schools, irrespective of how far they are from each other. However, little is known about the real structure of such online relationships. In this paper, we investigate the structure of interschool friendship on a popular social networking site. We use data from 36, 951 students from 590 schools of a large European city. We find that the probability of a friendship tie between students from neighboring schools is high and that it decreases with the distance between schools following the power law. We also find that students are more likely to be connected if the educational outcomes of their schools are similar. We show that this fact is not a consequence of residential segregation. While high- and low-performing schools are evenly distributed across the city, this is not the case for the digital space, where schools turn out to be segregated by educational outcomes. There is no significant correlation between the educational outcomes of a school and its geographical neighbors; however, there is a strong correlation between the educational outcomes of a school and its digital neighbors. These results challenge the common assumption that the Internet is a borderless space, and may have important implications for the understanding of educational inequality in the digital age.

Changes in the gender segregation of occupations in Sweden between 2003 and 2011.

AIM: The aim of this study was to analyze possible changes in the gender composition of occupations in Sweden, using register data covering the whole working population. METHODS: Cross tabulations on gender by occupation were computed and comparisons made of numbers and proportions of women and men aged 20-64 years to illustrate occupational gender-segregation categories in 2003 and 2011, respectively. All of those in working ages, employed in 2003 and 2011 (4.2 resp 4.7 millions individuals), were included. Differences in the distribution of women and men in all occupations were summarized using two gender-segregation indexes from 2003 and 2011, separately. RESULTS: The proportion of women increased in the gender-integrated (⩾40-<60% women) occupations. Also, the proportion of women in high-skilled professional occupations in the male-dominated category increased, as well as the proportion of men in mostly low-skilled female-dominated occupations, mainly in the service sector. The gender-segregation of occupations measured by the Index of Dissimilarly and the Karmel and MacLachlan Index was lower in 2011 than in 2003. CONCLUSIONS: The process of de-segregation has continued during our study period, from 2003 to 2011. The proportion of women increased in occupations that demand higher education, both in gender-integrated and in male-dominated occupations, which can contribute to a decrease in the level of sickness absence for women. Men increased their proportion in low-skilled, female-dominated occupations - a group with high levels of sickness absence or disability pension.

Examining Associations of Racial Residential Segregation With Patient Knowledge of Breast Cancer and Treatment Receipt.

BACKGROUND: The effect of racial residential segregation on breast cancer treatment disparities is unclear. We examined whether racial segregation is associated with adjuvant treatment receipt and patient knowledge of disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We surveyed a population-based sample of women in Northern California with stage I to III breast cancer diagnosed in 2010 to 2011 (participation rate = 68.5%, 500 patients). For black, Hispanic, and white women, we measured black and Hispanic segregation using the location quotient (LQ) of racial residential segregation, a proportional measure of the size of a minority group in the census tract compared with the larger metropolitan statistical area. We categorized LQ values for black and Hispanic participants into quartiles, with quartile 1 representing a lower relative level of segregation than quartile 4. We used multivariable logistical regression to assess the odds of receiving guideline-recommended adjuvant therapy and patient knowledge of tumor characteristics according to relative residential segregation. RESULTS: We observed greater residential segregation for black versus Hispanic patients (P < .05). Overall, there were no treatment differences according to Hispanic or black LQ, except for black LQ quartile 3 (vs. 1) for which we observed higher odds of hormonal therapy. Knowledge of disease did not vary according to black LQ, but patients in the Hispanic LQ quartile 3 (vs. quartile 1) had less tumor knowledge. CONCLUSION: We did not find clear associations for racial residential segregation and treatment or cancer knowledge in Northern California, an area with low levels of segregation. Additional research should assess the effect of segregation on breast cancer treatment disparities in a variety of geographical locations.

Relationship of Racial Residential Segregation to Newly Diagnosed Cases of HIV among Black Heterosexuals in US Metropolitan Areas, 2008-2015.

Social science and public health literature has framed residential segregation as a potent structural determinant of the higher HIV burden among black heterosexuals, but empirical evidence has been limited. The purpose of this study is to test, for the first time, the association between racial segregation and newly diagnosed heterosexually acquired HIV cases among black adults and adolescents in 95 large US metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in 2008-2015. We operationalized racial segregation (the main exposure) using Massey and Denton's isolation index for black residents; the outcome was the rate of newly diagnosed HIV cases per 10,000 black adult heterosexuals. We tested the relationship of segregation to this outcome using multilevel multivariate models of longitudinal (2008-2015) MSA-level data, controlling for potential confounders and time. All covariates were lagged by 1 year and centered on baseline values. We preliminarily explored mediation of the focal relationship by inequalities in education, employment, and poverty rates. Segregation was positively associated with the outcome: a one standard deviation decrease in baseline isolation was associated with a 16.2% reduction in the rate of new HIV diagnoses; one standard deviation reduction in isolation over time was associated with 4.6% decrease in the outcome. Exploratory mediation analyses suggest that black/white socioeconomic inequality may mediate the relationship between segregation and HIV. Our study suggests that residential segregation may be a distal determinant of HIV among black heterosexuals. The findings further emphasize the need to address segregation as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce racial inequities in HIV.

Can Public Housing Decrease Segregation? Lessons and Challenges From Non-European Immigration in France : Can Public Housing Decrease Segregation?

Recent decades have seen a rapid increase in the share of non-European immigrants in public housing in Europe, which has led to concern regarding the rise of ghettos in large cities. Using French census data over three decades, we examine how this increase in public housing participation has affected segregation. While segregation levels have increased moderately, on average, the number of immigrant enclaves has grown. The growth of enclaves is being driven by the large increase in non-European immigrants in the census tracts where the largest housing projects are located, both in the housing projects and the surrounding nonpublic dwellings. As a result, contemporary differences in segregation levels across metropolitan areas are being shaped by the concentration of public housing within cities, in particular the share of non-European immigrants in large housing projects constructed before the 1980s. Nevertheless, the overall effect of public housing on segregation has been ambiguous. While large projects have increased segregation, the inflows of non-European immigrants into small projects have brought many immigrants into census tracts where they have previously been rare and, thus, diminished segregation levels.

A Second Look at the Process of Occupational Feminization and Pay Reduction in Occupations.

Using the IPUMS-USA data for the years 1960-2015, this study examines trends in the effect of occupational feminization on occupational pay in the U.S. labor market and explores some of the mechanisms underlying these trends. The findings show that the (negative) association between occupational feminization and occupational pay level has declined, becoming insignificent in 2015. This trend, however, is reversed after education is controlled for at the individual as well as the occupational level. The two opposite trends are discussed in light of the twofold effect of education: (1) the entry of women into occupations requiring high education, and (2) the growing returns to education and to occupations with higher educational requirements. These two processes have concealed the deterioration in occupational pay following feminization. The findings underscore the significance of structural forms of gender inequality in general, and occupational devaluation in particular.

Three Dimensions of Change in School Segregation: A Grade-Period-Cohort Analysis.

This study uses the first age-period-cohort (APC) analysis of segregation to examine changes in U.S. public school segregation from 1999-2000 to 2013-2014. APC analyses disentangle distinct sources of change in segregation, and they account for grade effects that could distort temporal trends if grade distributions change over time. Findings indicate that grade effects are substantial, drastically reducing segregation at the transition to middle school and further at the transition to high school. These grade effects do not substantially distort the analysis of recent trends, however, because grade distributions were sufficiently stable. Black-white segregation was stagnant overall, while Hispanic-white segregation declined modestly. In both cases, declines across periods were offset by increases across cohorts. Further analyses reveal variation in these trends across metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas, regions, and areas with different histories of desegregation policy.

Does Black Socioeconomic Mobility Explain Recent Progress Toward Black-White Residential Integration?

Studies of racial residential segregation have found that black-white segregation in U.S. metropolitan areas has declined slowly but steadily since the early 1970s. As of this writing, black-white residential segregation in the United States is approximately 25 % lower than it was in 1970. To identify the sources of this decline, we used individual-level, geocoded data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to compare the residential attainment of different cohorts of blacks. We analyzed these data using Blinder-Oaxaca regression decomposition techniques that partition the decline in residential segregation among cohorts into the decline resulting from (1) changes in the social and economic characteristics of blacks and (2) changes in the association between blacks' social and economic characteristics and the level of residential segregation they experience. Our findings show that black cohorts entering adulthood prior to the civil rights movement of the 1960s experienced consistently high levels of residential segregation at middle age, but that cohorts transitioning to adulthood during and after this period of racial progress experienced significantly lower levels of residential segregation. We find that the decline in black-white residential segregation for these later cohorts reflects both their greater social and economic attainment and a strengthening of the association between socioeconomic characteristics and residential segregation. Educational gains for the post-civil rights era cohorts and improved access to integrated neighborhoods for high school graduates and college attendees in these later cohorts were the principal source of improved residential integration over this period.

Intergenerational Neighborhood Attainment and the Legacy of Racial Residential Segregation: A Causal Mediation Analysis.

Advances in mediation analysis are used to examine the legacy effects of racial residential segregation in the United States on neighborhood attainments across two familial generations. The legacy effects of segregation are anticipated to operate through two primary pathways: a neighborhood effects pathway and an urban continuity pathway. The neighborhood effects pathway explains why parent's exposure to racial residential segregation during their family-rearing years can influence the residential outcomes of their children later in life. The urban continuity pathway captures the temporal consistency of the built and topographical environment in providing similar residential opportunities across generations. Findings from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and U.S. Census data indicate that the legacy effect of racial residential segregation among black families operates primarily through the neighborhood effects that influence children growing up. For white families, there is less support for the legacy effects of segregation. The findings are supported by a comprehensive mediation analysis that provides a formal sensitivity analysis, deploys an instrumental variable, and assesses effect heterogeneity. Knowledge of the legacy of segregation moves neighborhood attainment research beyond point-in-time studies of racial residential segregation to provide a deeper understanding into the ways stratified residential environments are reproduced.

Native-immigrant occupational segregation and worker health in the United States, 2004-2014.

Immigrant workers are a growing share of the U.S. labor force and are overrepresented in certain occupations. This much is well documented, yet few studies have examined the consequences of this division of labor between foreign-born and native-born workers. This research focuses on one of the consequences of occupational segregation-worker health. We merge data from the 2004-2014 National Health Interview Surveys with occupational-level data from the Occupational Information Network 20.1 database and the American Community Surveys to examine the relationship between occupational segregation and health. First, logistic regression models show that working in an occupation with a higher share of immigrants is associated with higher odds of poor physical and psychological health. This relationship is more pronounced among native-born workers than among foreign-born workers. Second, we propose two explanations for the association between occupational segregation and health: (1) workers with less human capital are typically sorted into culturally devalued occupations with a higher concentration of immigrants, and (2) occupations with a higher percentage of immigrants generally have relatively poor work environments. We find sorting variables play a major role, whereas the smaller contribution of occupational environments to the segregation-health link is partly because of the heterogeneous (i.e., both positive and negative) indirect effects of different exposure measures. With the sustained high levels of immigration to the United States, the implications of integrated or segregated experiences in the labor market and their impact on workers are important avenues for health policies and future research.