Separate and Unequal: The Impact of Socioeconomic Status, Segregation, and the Great Recession on Racial Disparities in Housing Values

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melvin E. Thomas ◽  
Richard Moye ◽  
Loren Henderson ◽  
Hayward Derrick Horton

The effects of race, class, and residential segregation on housing values continue to be a major focus of sociological research. Nevertheless, there has yet to be a study that places these factors in the context of the great recession of 2008 and 2009. Accordingly, the purpose of this work is to assess the extent to which the great recession affected housing values for African Americans and whites relative to the joint effects of race, class, and residential segregation. The following research questions are addressed: (1) How do segregation and socioeconomic status (SES) affect racial differences in housing values? (2) What were the levels of racial disparity in housing values before, during, and after the great recession? and (3) Were the housing values of higher status African Americans insulated from the negative impact of segregation and the great recession compared with their lower status counterparts? Using the Integrated Public Use Micro-data Series, the 2010 metropolitan area dissimilarity and population density scores, and hierarchical linear modeling, the findings revealed that the great recession exacerbated racial differences in housing values most in the higher SES categories. Higher status African Americans were more disadvantaged relative to comparable whites than lower status African Americans compared with similar whites in terms of housing values. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings.

Author(s):  
Emile Cammeraat ◽  
Egbert Jongen ◽  
Pierre Koning

AbstractWe study the impact of mandatory activation programs for young welfare recipients in the Netherlands. What makes this reform unique is that it clashed head on with the Great Recession. We use differences-in-differences and data for the period 1999–2012 to estimate the effects of this reform. We find that the reform reduced the number of welfare recipients but had no effect on the number of NEETs (individuals not in employment, education or training). The absence of employment effects contrasts with previous studies on the impact of mandatory activation programs, which we argue is due to the reform taking place during a severe economic recession.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Tobias Arnold ◽  
Sean Mueller ◽  
Adrian Vatter

Abstract Over the past decades, decentralization has become the new paradigm in how states should organize power territorially. Carefully planned institutional re-designs are the most visible expression thereof. Yet the Great Recession of 2007–2009 has pushed governments into the opposite direction, i.e., towards centralization, to better weather the fiscal drought. Given these contradictory developments, this article compares the effects of twenty-three separate state reforms with the impact of the Great Recession on fiscal centralization in twenty-nine countries over more than two decades. In the main, our analyses attribute a larger effect to design, i.e., pro-active policy making through reforms, than reactive crisis management after a great shock. However, this difference is only apparent once we consider a state’s institutional structure, that is whether a political system is unitary or federal. Our findings thus highlight the need for a multidimensional approach to better understand the drivers of fiscal de/centralization.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 384-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cary Christian ◽  
Jonathan Bush

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the Great Recession on small- to medium-sized municipalities within the states of Georgia and Florida using a newly developed set of quantitative indices. Design/methodology/approach An examination of the methods and strategies utilized by individual cities to maintain public service levels despite distressed revenues is performed. From the data, performance measures are developed and used to evaluate the efficacy of the various strategies used by the cities. Outcomes of Georgia municipalities were compared to similarly sized Florida municipalities to study how underlying differences in tax structures and economies might have affected those outcomes. Findings Georgia and Florida municipalities relied on very different strategies for surviving the recession and its aftermath. Enterprise activities were critically important in both states with transfers to or from governmental activities rationalized in various ways. While Georgia is generally anti-property tax, more than half the Georgia municipalities relied on property tax increases to survive. Municipalities were unable to count on increased intergovernmental revenues during the recession. Finally, even with a tourist activity advantage, Florida municipalities fared only marginally better during and just after the recession, and fared worse four to six years post-recession. Practical implications The measures developed in this study provide a new, customizable methodology for the evaluation of financial condition that does not require in-depth comparisons to peers. Social implications Small- and medium-sized cities, and especially those in rural areas, are worthy of targeted research to better understand their unique problems. Originality/value This research is novel in utilizing a fiscal condition methodology that can be applied to a single municipality and does not require comparisons to peers for validity. However, it represents a very intuitive and customizable tool for making comparisons between municipalities of any size when such comparisons are desired. Additionally, the focus of this study is on small- to medium-sized municipalities which generally do not receive as much research attention as larger cities.


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