The hidden costs of urban sprawl: How it impacts economic mobility and inequality

Urban sprawl isn’t just unsightly. It can also hinder intergenerational mobility among low-income residents and exacerbate racial inequality, according to a series of recent studies led by geographers at the University of Utah.

An analysis of area-level census data co-authored with a former economics graduate student at the American College of Social and Behavioral Sciences found that people who grew up in areas with high sprawl have lower income potential than those who grew up in denser areas. It was found that the sex was low.

“It’s harder for adults to get jobs in larger areas,” said Kelsey Carlston, now an assistant professor of economics at Gonzaga University. “If we understand how children’s interactions with their neighborhoods are related to their economic opportunities, we can devise targeted policies to help poor children escape poverty and improve their conditions. I guess.”

This study and two related studies, published in Economic Development Quarterly, were led by Yehua Dennis Wei, a professor in the School of Environment, Society and Sustainability. The other two books were co-authored with graduate student Ning Xiong.

Wei’s three new studies build on previous work led by Reid Ewing, a Utah urban planning professor whose research examines the negative effects of sprawl and identifies characteristics of urban resilience.

Ewing and colleagues, including Wei, have demonstrated how urban-level sprawl can trap families in intergenerational cycles of poverty.

The new study is more detailed and extends to the neighborhood level by analyzing demographic information for the 71,443 neighborhoods covered by the U.S. Census. These areas have fewer than 8,000 residents, and social scientists use census tract data to determine poverty rates, income levels, ethnic characteristics, educational levels, and other characteristics of subcounty geographic areas. You can investigate regional differences in

U research characterizes sprawl as an urban environment with low accessibility, high vehicle traffic, and clear separation of residential, commercial, and business areas. In other words, places with poor access to pedestrian streets and long distances between work, school, recreation, shopping, and home.

“One of our findings is that typical livable city indicators such as walkability, mixed-use development, and balance between employment and housing improve intergenerational mobility,” Wei said.

However, he cautioned that this may not always be the case, depending on socio-economic factors.

“We find that these types of dense, mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods can have low levels of intergenerational mobility due to their high concentrations of low-income households, single-parent households, and in some cases ethnic minorities. “We are working hard,” Wei said. “The general finding is true, but it also depends on who lives there and the social relationships in that neighborhood.”

At the urban level, sprawl not only has negative impacts on public health and the environment, but is also linked to a decline in social cohesion and an increase in racial discrimination and income segregation.

At the neighborhood level, examined in a new study, sprawl is associated with decreased social interaction and social capital.

Using observational data compiled in a dataset called the Opportunity Atlas, Wei and his co-authors matched the IRS tax records of adults born between 1978 and 1983 with their parents’ tax records. was completed.

“The Opportunity Atlas shows average outcomes at the neighborhood and city levels for children from a variety of economic backgrounds,” Carlston said. “We can see how children compare with their parents and their relative income distribution, and we can see whether children have had opportunities to improve their status. Yes, we then control for variables such as income, school quality, demographics, and social capital.”

This dataset provides several measures of intergenerational mobility at the regional, county, and commuting area levels. Those indicators include likelihood of going to prison, teen birth rate, income rank, and more.

Scholars have compared intergenerational mobility in sprawling and non-sprawling regions and cities.

“If someone grew up in a very low-sprawl area in the 10th percentile rather than in a very high-sprawl 90th percentile area, their expected annual income would be $2,864 higher, which is almost 10%. “It was a few percentage points,” Carlston said. “However, the same was not true for children from high-income families, where children living in large areas did slightly better.”

They found that even in dense cities, sprawl is strongly correlated with lower mobility among low-income households.

Carlston cautioned that the new research does not establish a causal link between sprawl and reduced social mobility.

“But this relationship likely includes many of the problems that come with sprawl,” she says. “For example, large areas are often divided into smaller municipalities, which means the number of resources, such as community centers and parks, is highly dependent on the income of neighboring residents.”

In other words, high-income residents are incentivized to live where development patterns are optimal for the individual rather than optimal for society.

“This means local urban planners and officials need to consider broader social impacts and choose zoning patterns and regulations that work best for all residents, especially those seeking to reduce sprawl and encourage infill development. “This means that doing so can have a long-term positive impact on children’s economic potential,” Carlston said. “We probably can’t turn Atlanta into New York City, but we can create neighborhoods that are built for everyone. We can also create better transit connections and spread the money across the metropolis. We could also try to reduce the negative effects of sprawl by finding mechanisms that make it more difficult.” ”

Dennis Way’s study, “Urban Sprawl and Intergenerational Mobility: City- and Neighborhood-Level Impacts of Sprawl,” co-authored with Kelsey Carlson, is published in the November issue of Economic Development Quarterly.

His research, titled “Neighborhood Environment, Socioeconomic Conditions, and Intergenerational Mobility,” is published in the journal “Cities.” His article “Racial Inequalities in Urban Sprawl and Intergenerational Mobility” will be published in the Journal of Economic Geography. Ning Xiong, a co-author of the latter two studies, is a geography doctoral candidate. Sergio Rey of San Diego State University is also a co-author.