IdEP Seminar "The (Express) Way to Segregation: Evidence from Chicago", Sara Bagagli

How do man-made barriers shape racial segregation within cities? I exploit the construction of expressways in Chicago in the 1950s as a source of variation in neighborhoods’ quality and connectivity. Central to the analysis is the consideration that these multilane roads (i) produce a local shock to residential amenities, and (ii) divide the areas they cross through, creating local barriers to the interaction of nearby communities. I find that expressways affect within-city racial segregation through two main channels.