Separate when equal?

"In contrast to conventional wisdom, this paper identifies a powerful mechanism which can lead topersistent and even increasing residential segregation when racial differences in education and othersociodemographics narrow. We document that middle-class black neighborhoods are in short supplyin many U.S. metropolitan areas, forcing highly educated blacks either to live in whiteneighborhoods with high amenity levels or in more black neighborhoods with lower amenity levels.A simple model then shows that increases in the proportion of highly educated blacks in ametropolitan area may lead to the emergence of new middle-class black neighborhoods, relievingthe prior neighborhood supply constraint and causing increases in residential segregation. Cross-MSA evidence from the 2000 Census indicates that this mechanism does in fact operate: as theproportion of highly educated blacks in an MSA increases, so the segregation of educated blacks andblacks more generally goes up. Our empirical findings are robust and have important implicationsfor the evolution of residential segregation"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.