Re-Examining the Effect of Job Sprawl on the Black-White Housing Consumption Gap: Evidence Following the Great Recession

Abstract

This article examines the association between employment decentralization and the Black-White housing consumption gap since the Great Recession. This research investigates the extent to which post-recession spatial patterns of employment facilitate, or impede, the recovery for Black households. The model estimates a statistically significant correlation between job sprawl and the Black-White housing gap, although the direction depends upon the level of sprawl and measure of housing consumption. For example, while job sprawl is associated with a reduction in the Black-White unit size gap, that association only holds in high-sprawl metropolitan areas. In one area of improvement since the recession, job sprawl is correlated with a reduction in the ownership gap in a majority of metropolitan areas. However, job sprawl is also correlated with an intensification of the suburban ownership gap in the vast majority of metropolitan areas in the study. This study counters conventional arguments that unplanned sprawl may reduce intergroup inequality, and that metropolitan land use regulations may therefore exacerbate inequality. The results of this research demonstrate that inequality persists in light of competitive market forces that generate sprawl. Metropolitan land use policies that mitigate sprawl may therefore be legitimate tools for mitigating intergroup inequality in metropolitan housing markets.