Revisiting Exclusionary Zoning and Income Segregation

Abstract

Income segregation, the separation of households of different income levels, continues to define the social landscape of the United States. Social scientists have long posited that exclusionary zoning policy plays a crucial role in income segregation’s persistence, and recent empirical work suggests that this is indeed the case. In this study, I improve upon the extant literature by employing the most recent and expansive zoning dataset, by mitigating the biases affecting estimates of income segregation, and by estimating linear models that account for the effects of different forms of zoning in the presence of one another. Consistent with previous research, I find that larger minimum lot sizes across metropolitan areas are associated with greater segregation of middle- and high-income households. I also find that increased rates of inclusionary zoning programs across metropolitan areas contribute to decreased segregation of all income groups.