Mardi | 2014-09-23
Sully 5, 16h00-17h20

Jean-Marc ZANINETTI – Craig E. COLTEN

Concentrated poverty in highly segregated neighborhoods within U.S. metropolitan areas is a long debated academic issue. Studied in isolation, the usual statistical indicators may fail to locate accurately the most distressed neighborhoods and assess the exact relationship between places, race and poverty. This paper investigates the persistent linkage between the poverty rate at the neighborhood level and the spatial distribution of African-American and Hispanic communities by using spatially autoregressive correlation analysis and bivariate local spatial statistics. Empirical analysis of geospatial data of 153 metropolitan areas of the U.S. South in 1970 and 2010 suggests that spatial dependence is a major explanatory factor of the linkage between segregation and poverty. By using data sets aggregated by census tracts at two periods, 1970 and 2010, this study confirms the persistent relevance of this issue, despite significant progress toward better integration of minorities in the American society.