Housing Discrimination and Urban Poverty of African-Americans

This paper develops a conceptual synthesis of six competing positions about the causes of inordinately high rates of poverty among urban African-Americans. This framework guides the specification of a six-simultaneous-equation econometric model, wherein both the pattern and the extent of racial residential segregation, inter-class residential segregation within the African-American community, school racial segregation, school performance, and poverty rates are endogenous. The potential roles of housing market discrimination are emphasized.