Has the concentration of income and poverty among subsurbs of large US metropolitan areas changed over time?

Abstract

American policy analysts have assumed that poverty is increasingly concentrating in the inner suburbs of large cities. This study demonstrates that that assumption is inaccurate. Using data on household income and poverty for suburban civil divisions from the 1970, 1980, and 1990 US Censuses, this article calculates values for two indicators of the change in the relative concentration of income and poverty, the coefficient of variation, and a regression of changes on initial values. Results indicate that poverty and income concentrations have not generally increased among suburbs over the last twenty years. There is evidence, however, that poverty has increasingly concentrated within some suburban municipalities of older metropolitan areas in the northeast and midwest. Abstract. American policy analysts have assumed that poverty is increasingly concentrating in the inner suburbs of large cities. This study demonstrates that that assumption is inaccurate. Using data on household income and poverty for suburban civil divisions from the 1970, 1980 and 1990 US Censuses, this article calculates values for two indicators of the change in the relative concentration of income and poverty, the coefficient of variation, and a regression of changes on initial values. Results indicate that poverty and income concentrations have not generally increased among suburbs over the last twenty years. There is evidence, however, that poverty has increasingly concentrated within some suburban municipalities of older metropolitan areas in the northeast and midwest. JEL classification: R12, R23

Spatial Analysis of the Urban-to-Rural Migration Determinants in the Viennese Metropolitan Area. A Transition from Suburbia to Postsuburbia?

“…They concluded that suburbanization increases the costs for public services and for that reason compact cities are preferable. Additional (negative) economic aspects of suburbanization are discussed for instance by Voith (1998) and Madden (2003).…”

The Suburban Ghetto: The Legacy of Herbert Gans in Understanding the Experience of Poverty in Recently Impoverished American Suburbs

“…Berube and Frey (2002), on the other hand, argue that 14 of the 15 suburbs with the highest poverty rates are located either in the South, which is home to large populations of African Americans, or the West, which is home to large immigrant and Hispanic populations. The greater Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Jersey City, Boston, Cleveland, and Detroit areas have all been identified as metropolitan regions where this shift in the landscape of poverty has been greatest (Berube and Frey, 2002;Jargowsky, 2003;Madden, 2003aMadden, , 2003b.…”

“…In addition, many low-income families have moved from the city to the suburbs in the wake of the suburbanization of low-skill jobs (Allard, 2004). In turn, middle-class families that once occupied the inner-rings have themselves either moved back to the central city or have fled to the outer suburbs, in much the same way that white middle-class families left the central cities for the suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s (Berube and Frey, 2002;Jackson, 1985;Leigh and Lee, 2005;Logan and Golden, 1986;Madden, 2003aMadden, , 2003b.…”

“…More than 30 years after the publication of this now classic study, the modern American demographic landscape has undergone a significant transformation, drastically altering the composition and defining features of many suburban communities. Poverty has significantly increased in suburban America (largely in first-ring suburbs), as has the number of minority families living in these areas, crime, unemployment, rates of high school drop outs, and health problems Reid, 2003, 2004;Berube and Frey, 2002;Jargowsky, 2003;Madden, 2003aMadden, , 2003bPuentes and Warren 2006). Indeed, conditions in many American suburbs have come to parallel what we often think of as being unique to central cities.…”

Hope for people or hope for cities? : HOPE VI at Liberty Green.

“…1 Madden (2003) provides contradictory evidence about the growth of suburban poverty. According to Madden (2003) there is evidence that poverty has become slight more concentrated among suburbs over the past 20 years, however large and older central cities in the Northeast and Midwest regions have experienced a greater increase in poverty relative to the current rates of poverty in surrounding suburbs, and large central cities in the South and West have higher rates relative to their surrounding suburbs Suburban neighborhoods are less well equipped to serve low-income residents-services are often dispersed and the healthcare infrastructure is inadequate. The low birthrates typically found in the suburbs have been attributed to the challenges women have in accessing prenatal care in poor suburban neighborhoods.…”