Does Segregation Create Winners and Losers? Education and Spatial Segregation on the Basis of Income and Race

Lincoln Quillian, Northwestern University

This study examines the relationship between spatial segregation on the basis of income and race groups and educational attainment. Data are drawn from 1990 Census Microdata, the October Current Population Survey, and tract-level data from the 1990 Census summary tape files. The results from multilevel modeling indicate that black and poor respondents who resided in more black/white and poor/nonpoor segregated metropolitan areas, respectively, were more likely to drop out of high school and less likely to then continue on into college. But white and nonpoor respondents in more segregated areas were not more likely to graduate from high school or go on to college. Results are unchanged by the use of spatial-based segregation measures or instrumental variable estimation.