New Options for Investigating Macro-level Variation in Segregation

Abstract

The previous chapter established that the difference of means framework for measuring segregation makes it possible to investigate segregation in a single city using individual-level models of residential attainment. The discussion in this chapter reviews how this approach can be extended to investigate ecological (i.e., aggregate-level) variation in segregation across cities and over time using multi-level models of individual residential attainments. The key is that ecological variation in segregation can be investigated by assessing how the effect of race on segregation-relevant individual residential outcomes is conditioned by time and/or city characteristics. A central advantage of this approach is that it permits researchers to also include relevant non-racial social and economic characteristics in the micro-model. This allows effects of community characteristics to be estimated at the “zero order” level or “net” of controls for non-racial factors. It also can help overcome the risk of errors of inference that are likely to occur in aggregate-level analyses that attempt to control for relevant individual-level social and economic characteristics using aggregate-level indicators of group disparity on these variables.