East side story: historical pollution and persistent neighborhood sorting

Stephan Heblich; Alex Trew; Yanos Zylberberg

East side story: historical pollution and persistent neighborhood sorting

Stephan Heblich, Alex Trew, Yanos Zylberberg

Research output: Working paper › Discussion paper

Abstract

Why are the east sides of formerly industrial cities often the more deprived? Using individual-level census data together with newly created historical pollution patterns derived from the locations of 5,000 industrial chimneys and an atmospheric model, we show that this results from the persistence of neighborhood sorting that ?rst emerged during the Industrial Revolution when prevailing winds blew pollution eastwards. Past pollution explains up to 20% of the observed neighborhood segregation in 2011, even though coal pollution stopped in the 1970s. A quantitative model identi?es the role of non-linearities and tipping-like dynamics underlying this persistence.

Original language	English
Place of Publication	St Andrews
Publisher	University of St Andrews
Number of pages	78
Publication status	Published - 20 Mar 2018

Publication series

Name	School of Economics and Finance Discussion Paper
Publisher	University of St Andrews
No.	1613
ISSN (Print)	0962-4031
ISSN (Electronic)	2055-303X

Keywords

Neighborhood sorting
Historical pollution
Deprivation
Persistence
Environmental disamenity

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Trew_EconDiscPap_1613revised
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title = "East side story: historical pollution and persistent neighborhood sorting",

abstract = "Why are the east sides of formerly industrial cities often the more deprived? Using individual-level census data together with newly created historical pollution patterns derived from the locations of 5,000 industrial chimneys and an atmospheric model, we show that this results from the persistence of neighborhood sorting that ?rst emerged during the Industrial Revolution when prevailing winds blew pollution eastwards. Past pollution explains up to 20% of the observed neighborhood segregation in 2011, even though coal pollution stopped in the 1970s. A quantitative model identi?es the role of non-linearities and tipping-like dynamics underlying this persistence.",

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N2 - Why are the east sides of formerly industrial cities often the more deprived? Using individual-level census data together with newly created historical pollution patterns derived from the locations of 5,000 industrial chimneys and an atmospheric model, we show that this results from the persistence of neighborhood sorting that ?rst emerged during the Industrial Revolution when prevailing winds blew pollution eastwards. Past pollution explains up to 20% of the observed neighborhood segregation in 2011, even though coal pollution stopped in the 1970s. A quantitative model identi?es the role of non-linearities and tipping-like dynamics underlying this persistence.

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KW - Environmental disamenity

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East side story: historical pollution and persistent neighborhood sorting

Abstract

Publication series

Keywords

UN SDGs

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East side story: historical pollution and persistent neighborhood sorting

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