Governmental Organization and City/Suburb Income Inequality, 1960–1970

Abstract

City/suburb inequalities in family income levels increased sharply in the majority of metropolitan regions between 1960 and 1970. In an analysis that also evaluates theeffects of city age, racial composition, and geographic region, it is found that one major determinant of suburban advantage is reliance on property taxes to support local public services. In the North, there is also greater inequality in SMSAs with higher proportions of black residents. This relationship is not due simply to the segregation of poor northern blacks in central cities; metropolitan racial composition directly affects thedistributionof whites between city and suburb. These results require a modification of classical ecological interpretations of suburban advantage to take into account the political and social context of metropolitan growth, and support the view that metropolitan development is in part structured by the pursuit of municipal advantage and racial discrimination.