Market factors affecting spatial heterogeneity among urban neighborhoods

Abstract

Institutional factors perpetuating segregation in urban neighborhoods— redlining by lenders and insurers, steering by brokers, and discrimination by owners—have attracted much attention recently. But natural market forces (demand, supply, and equilibrium price adjustment) can also create neighborhood heterogeneity in income, race, and housing characteristics.

This article establishes a framework to examine the market forces that create spatial clustering of households. On the demand side, differences in resident preferences and incomes lead to clustering; on the supply side, differences in cost functions, created by market specialization or location‐specific features, are important. Equilibrium price adjustment reinforces tendencies toward heterogeneity and leads to differential affordability patterns. Bid‐rent and other models of residential location, discrimination in urban housing markets, and the Tiebout model are discussed. A research agenda is proposed to measure neighborhood heterogeneity, isolate its influence on educational and employment opportunities, and evaluate policies for ameliorating its adverse effects.     

The Stories Nations Tell,in Three Voices

Abstract

An examination of the role of history in the South China Sea is dangerous ground. Contemporary discussions about sovereignty and jurisdictions in the Sea have become so politicized as to obscure historical insights. This essay considers the role of history in the South China Sea through the lens of three recent works on maritime Asia. While the Robert Kaplan’s 2014 book offers an abstract account of rising states and ancient rivalries, the two other works by Bill Hayton and Bernard Cole offer more compelling explanations of the role of human agency in shaping the region’s claims. The comparison of these works yields a commentary on the South China Sea disputes, and on the methodologies employed by those who study this consequential sub-region and its maritime past.