Inequality,Health Infrastructure,and Spatial Context: Understanding Pathways to Variations in the Causal Determinants of Race-Specific Mortality Rates

Previous research examines the ecological relationship between income inequality and mortality, and results are inconclusive. This analysis builds upon these findings by implementing a spatially weighted path analysis to better understand the mediating relationships of economic and social inequality, health infrastructure, and mortality. In the analysis, overall and race-specific mortality rates are combined with local health infrastructure data, income inequality and racial segregation data, and a series of ecological controls to undertake this examination. Ultimately, findings show that income inequality is a stronger determinant of mortality than is segregation, for whites and blacks, regardless of the existing health infrastructure. We also find racial disparities in the direct effect of local health infrastructure on mortality. In contrast to previous literature suggesting no association between income inequality and mortality after accounting for race and model sophistication, we argue that the significance of the relationship persists using race-specific, spatially weighted path models.     

Income Inequality across Micro and Meso Geographic Scales in the Midwestern United States, 1979–20091

This article examines the spatial distribution of income inequality and the socioeconomic factors affecting it using spatial analysis techniques across 16,285 block groups, 5,050 tracts, and 618 counties in the western part of the North Central Region of the United States. Different geographic aggregations result in different inequality outcomes, suggesting spatial scale needs to be carefully considered in inequality research. Inequality is spatially clustered in suburban areas of larger metro areas and around Native American reservations in the Dakotas. Higher inequality is associated with better socioeconomic conditions, counter to the social inequality literature but consistent with the inequality growth literature. However, growing inequality is associated with worse socioeconomic outcomes. Results partially support the polarization thesis that declines in industrial sectors and growth in services has caused incomes to diverge. Higher and growing inequality is associated with both low‐skill and high‐skill services jobs. However, employment in agricultural and industrial sectors experiencing large losses over the past three decades is also linked to higher and growing inequality. This suggests a dual process where many former agricultural and industrial workers are now employed in other sectors at lower wages, while the remaining workers in these sectors earn higher and growing wages.     

Spatial Analysis of Changes in the Number of Farms During the Farm Crisis*

Abstract This analysis reexamines factors affecting farm change during the Farm Crisis using spatial analysis techniques to identify important spatial factors and correct for spatial autocorrelation. Results indicate the importance of indicators of farm structure, percent of prime farmland, and state‐level processes in predicting changes in the number of farms. The findings also suggest a spatially‐dependent process: counties near each other in space experienced similar types and rates of change in the number of farms. Reasons for the effects of geographic proximity are explored.     

Problem Gambling and Gaming Machine Density: Socio-spatial Analysis of Three Victorian Localities

This paper examines the debate about possible relationships between problem gambling and accessibility to electronic gaming machines (EGMs), in the context of the Victorian Government's policy that imposed a ‘cap’ on EGMs in disadvantaged communities. Using GIS (Geographical Information Systems), the spatial distribution of social disadvantage in three ‘capped’ localities was compared with the spatial distribution of gaming venues and patterns of concentrated EGM expenditure during 2001–2005, including seasonal trends. Research revealed different relationships between spatial and social categories in the study localities, indicating the need for more systematic local area analysis. This research raises questions about the limitations of conventional methodologies and regulatory strategies based on simple measures such as gaming machine density. We propose improvements to the methodology to better measure the changing level of local supply and demand for machine gaming.     

Intergenerational mobility and racial inequality: The case for a more holistic approach

Intergenerational social mobility studies have largely explored the relationship between one aspect of parent background (e.g., education, income, occupational status, wealth, or neighborhood context) and the corresponding aspect of that parent's child once they reach adulthood. Studies examining these various measures have provided differing conclusions about the extent that social origins constrain attainment in the U.S. In contrast, the persistence of racial inequality in intergenerational mobility is one consistent finding. For instance, across various measures, research demonstrates Black individuals are more likely than White individuals to experience downward mobility, and less likely to exceed the socioeconomic standings of their parents. In this article, we argue that a more holistic measure of both origin and destination, one that combines the above-mentioned indicators, is necessary to advance our understanding of the extent that origin constrains future attainment. We summarize lessons gleaned from one-dimensional estimates, and from other approaches that either combine some dimensions of socioeconomic background or attempt to capture a more holistic background in other ways. We then make a recommendation for methodological interventions to accomplish this more holistic approach and conclude with research and policy implications.     

The Effects of Race and Family Structure on Women's Spatial Relationship to the Labor Market

This study examines the intersection of race, family structure, and economic inequality through women's spatial relationships to the labor market. Using survey data from three major metro labor markets, we operationalize spatial relationships in two ways: first, using a conventional measure of commute time, and second, using an indicator of neighborhood job contacts to obtain employment. Results indicate that family structure exerts no direct effect on women's spatial relationship to the labor market. Race, by contrast, plays a strong role, mediating women's reliance on mass transit, their response to teenage kids in the household, and their likelihood of using neighbors to find employment. The result is a situation in which black and Latina women are more likely than white women to rely on localized job networks to obtain employment that requires longer commutes from home.     

The 1960s Black Riots Revisited: City Level Explanations of Their Severity

This paper involves a city-level investigation of the 1964–1971 black rioting. It attempts to explain inter-city variations in the severity of the rioting with inter-city variations in black population size, political structure, black-white income inequality, and regional location. The research charts two new areas of inquiry: (1) It is the first study to use data on the entire rioting period (1964–71). (2) Most previous investigators have concentrated on linear hypotheses, e.g., most have posited and tested for a linear relationship between riot activity and black-white economic inequality. However, a review of theoretic commentary on rebellion reveals that some potential relationships should be hypothesized as curvilinear; more specifically, plausible hypotheses can be developed that rebellious activity is highest where economic inequality and political responsiveness are moderate. Such hypotheses are developed and tested. The overall pattern of results supported the posited curvilinear relationships.     

The Unintended Significance of Race: Environmental Racial Inequality in Detroit

This article addresses shortcomings in the literature on environmental inequality by (a) setting forth and testing four models of environmental inequality and (b) explicitly linking environmental inequality research to spatial mismatch theory and to the debate on the declining significance of race. The explanatory models ask whether the distribution of blacks and whites around environmental hazards is the result of black/white income inequality, racist siting practices, or residential segregation. The models are tested using manufacturing facility and census data from the Detroit metropolitan area. It turns out that the distribution of blacks and whites around this region's polluting manufacturing facilities is largely the product of residential segregation which, paradoxically, has reduced black proximity to manufacturing facility pollution.     

Using GIS to enhance programs serving emancipated youth leaving foster care

This article describes a GIS prototype designed to assist with the identification and evaluation of housing that is affordable, safe, and effective in supporting the educational goals and parental status of youth transitioning from foster care following emancipation. Spatial analysis was used to identify rental properties based on three inclusion criteria (affordability, proximity to public transportation, and proximity to grocery stores), three exclusion criteria (areas of high crime, prostitution, and sexual predator residence), and three suitability criteria (proximity to health care, mental health care, and youth serving organizations). The results were applied to four different scenarios to test the utility of the model. Of the 145 affordable rental properties, 27 met the criteria for safe and effective housing. Of these, 19 were located near bus routes with direct service to post-secondary education or vocational training programs. Only 6 were considered appropriate to meet the needs of youth who had children of their own. These outcomes highlight the complexities faced by youth when they attempt to find affordable and suitable housing following emancipation. The LEASE prototype demonstrates that spatial analysis can be a useful tool to assist with planning services for youth making the transition to independent living.     

What Kinds of Places Attract and Sustain Amish Populations?

The Amish are one of the fastest growing ethnoreligious groups in rural America. They are not only growing in historic settlements but are also starting new settlements. This study synthesizes and tests hypotheses about Amish migration destinations and settlement sustainability. Specifically, hypotheses address factors related to population, agriculture, and proximity to other Amish. Findings suggest that the locations Amish settle have several defining characteristics including: low population density, nonmetropolitan county designation, context conducive to small‐scale farming (e.g., low farm acreage price, moderately rolling hills), vicinity to a small commercial center, low to negative population growth, and proximity to an existing Amish settlement. Some characteristics are showing increasing flexibility, such as a small‐scale farming context and proximity to a commercial center. Conversely, settling in areas with a growing population or at a distance from another Amish settlement contributes to a higher likelihood of community dissolution.     

Learning Disabilities and Inequality

Functionally speaking, students are labeled with learning disabilities (LDs) and placed into special education to enable them to achieve up to their potential. Nonetheless, potential links between LDs and inequality have been a dominant research theme. Inequality may determine who experiences LDs, or who receives the LD label, just as inequality may result from LDs, or from the LD label. This article reviews broad theoretical perspectives of LDs, as well as research focused specifically on LDs and inequality. With significant data and methodological limitations hindering this body of research, this article also demonstrates how theoretical perspectives and methodologies from sociology of education and sociology of health could make significant contributions to the literatures and policy focused on this group of students.     

Digital Inequality and Place: The Effects of Technological Diffusion on Internet Proficiency and Usage across Rural,Suburban, and Urban Counties*

Recently researchers have made efforts to reconceptualize digital inequality into discrete levels. These levels reflect access to and diffusion of technologies, proficiency in Internet usage, and propensity to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by information and communication technologies for assistance in daily life. We assess the utility of this approach for studying digital inequality across rural, suburban, and urban counties. Based on data from a 2005 nationally representative random sample telephone survey of 2,185 adults, the results provide mixed support for using this approach to studying digital inequality. In particular, we find that rural residents use Internet technologies less for assistance in helping with economics and other daily activities when compared with individuals from suburban and urban areas; however, our results suggest that this relationship is the product of the slow diffusion of advanced technologies to rural areas. The implications of these findings for understanding this under‐theorized form of inequality are discussed, and we make contributions to this literature through empirically addressing issues of digital capital.     

SPATIAL COMPETITION AND STRATEGIC FIRM RELOCATION

Firms compete spatially for customers who have some degree of brand loyalty. The number and attractiveness of the alternatives available to these customers dictates the level of competition facing firms. In this study, data on ticket pricing in four professional sports leagues are used to empirically examine the existence of spatial competition in sports, and the impact of space on team relocations. Results, allowing for structural breaks over time while using spatial autoregressive techniques, suggest that sports franchises spatially compete when pricing their tickets, and that spatial characteristics, including the level of spatial competition, have influenced the relocation of teams. (JEL D40, L11, R30, L83)     

Environmental Racial Inequality in Detroit

This study uses industrial pollution data from the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and tract-level demographic data from the 2000 U.S. census to determine whether environmental racial inequality existed in the Detroit metropolitan area in the year 2000. This study differs from prior environmental inequality research in two important ways. First, it offers a positive rationale for using hazard proximity indicators. Second, it uses a distance decay modeling technique to estimate hazard proximity. This technique weights each hazard's estimated negative effect by distance such that the estimated negative effect declines continuously as distance from the hazard increases, thus providing more accurate estimates of proximity-based environmental risk than can be obtained using other variable construction techniques currently found in the literature. Using this technique, I find that Detroit's black neighborhoods were disproportionately burdened by TRI facility activity in 2000 and that neighborhood racial composition had a strong independent effect on neighborhood proximity to TRI activity.     

Migration and Inequality in the Rural United States: Connecting Urban to Rural and Local to Global

This article draws from several overlapping literatures to frame urban–rural migration in the United States as the cause of emerging dimensions of inequality. To begin, the article reviews the amenity migration field of research, noting that scholars often underestimate or overlook inequality within rural destinations because common research lenses and methodological decisions inadvertently mask it. The article then describes a second thread of research that explicitly implicates migration as a driver of inequality and a third that draws connections to gentrification. Finally, the article reviews more recent research that characterizes inequality in rural destinations using a more global sociological perspective. The author draws attention to work, which recognizes that migration constitutes a material and theoretical connection between inequality experienced locally and societal inequality at the national and global scales.     

A spatial study of teachers’ salaries in Pennsylvania school districts

I explore the relationship among teacher salaries across Pennsylvania school districts. Using techniques developed in spatial econometrics, I find that the error terms in a salary regression are spatially correlated, suggesting evidence of omitted labor market factors. I also find evidence that salaries in nearby, financially similar districts directly influence teacher salaries in a particular district, which is evidence of pattern bargaining or more informal social comparisons across districts. Econometric specifications that ignore these factors overstate the influence of own-district variables, such as economic indicators, on salary. I thank colleagues Linda Babcock and John Engberg for very valuable contributions and for use of their data. Thanks also to Wil Gorr, who helped with some of the GIS aspects of this research. A National Science Foundation grant supported data collection.     

THE EFFECTS OF EXPORTS, PUBLIC DEBT, AND DEVELOPMENT ON INCOME INEQUALITY

Classical economics and most modernization theorists hold that a curvilinear relationship exist between income inequality and development level. In this article that relationship is tested. In addition, it is hypothesized that exports and debt as percentages of gross domestic product increases individual income inequality. Regression analyses with controls for development and time were used to test these relationships (N=28 at two time periods). To test these hypotheses with additional data a panel cross-section design was used with data for countries where it is not available a two separate times (N=37 and N=46). The results do not provide evidence to support a curvilinear relationship between development and income distribution when controls for dependency are included in the regression equation. The results from all six regressions presented support the hypothesis that exports enhance income inequality. Moreover, a covariant analysis indicates that exports effect inequality significantly more in undeveloped countries than in developed countries. It is concluded that for less developed countries pursuing export-oriented production, income does not become more evenly distributed at later stages of development.