Demography and Population Loss from Central Cities, 1950-2000 / Leah Platt Boustan, Allison Shertzer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Boustan, Leah Platt.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Shertzer, Allison.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w16435.

NBER working paper series no. w16435

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2010.

Summary:

The share of metropolitan residents living in central cities declined dramatically from 1950 to 2000. We argue that cities would have lost even further ground if not for demographic trends such as renewed immigration, delayed child bearing, and a decline in the share of households headed by veterans. We provide causal estimates of the effect of children on residential location using the birth of twins. The effect of veteran status is identified from a discontinuity in the probability of military service during and after the mass mobilization for World War II. Our results suggest that these changes in demographic composition were strong enough to bolster city population but not to fully counteract socio-economic factors favoring suburban growth.

Notes:

Print version record

October 2010.