Tell me who's your neighbour and I'll tell you how much time you've got: The spatiotemporal consequences of residential segregation

Abstract

Relying on data from the United States Census and the American Time Use Survey (2010–2017), we examine how residential segregation influences per capita discretionary time availability in Los Angeles, New York City and Miami. We find a sizable disadvantage of being Latinx for discretionary time availability. Non-Latinx Whites have 182 extra hours of per capita discretionary time per year than do Latinx individuals. Both within-neighbourhood and adjacent-neighbourhood influences matter. In most neighbourhoods, segregation is correlated with having more discretionary time. Individuals in highly segregated areas have approximately 80 more hours of discretionary time per year than those living in diverse areas. This suggests that in addition to socioeconomic, cultural and well-being benefits, ethnic enclaves may also impart temporal advantages. However, we find that there may be diminishing marginal returns with increasing segregation in surrounding areas. Sociodemographic characteristics explain over one-quarter of the variance between segregation and discretionary time availability.