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Abstract:
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Empirical research and sociological theory link living in a high poverty neighborhood, segregated from other social classes, to decreased individual educational, economic and social outcomes. In response, U.S. cities have pursued policies aimed at fostering mixed-income neighborhoods. However, less attention has been given to the potential impact of economic segregation on overall urban economic well-being. My paper employs data on 80 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) from the 2000 Census, the Census Bureau s County Business Patterns data and the Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics. It assesses whether a relationship exists between the degree of economic segregation in an MSA and four proxies for urban economic well-being: median income, jobs per capita, business establishments per capita and the unemployment rate. To capture economic segregation, I employ two indexes of dissimilarity, measuring (1) the dissimilarity between the poor and non-poor and (2) the dissimilarity between poor and households above twice the poverty rate. Consistent with the findings of previous researchers, my results generally do not demonstrate a statistically significant link between urban economic well-being, as measured by the four proxies for urban economic performance, and economic segregation in an MSA. |