Why are the east sides of formerly industrial cities more deprived? To answer this question, we use individual-level census data and create historical pollution patterns derived from the locations of 5,000 industrial chimneys and an atmospheric model. We show that this observation results from path-dependent neighborhood sorting that began during the Industrial Revolution, as prevailing winds blew pollution eastward. Past pollution explains up to 20% of observed neighborhood segregation in 2011, even though coal pollution stopped in the 1970s. We develop a quantitative model to identify the role of neighborhood effects and relocation rigidities underlying this persistence. ? 2021 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.

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1 May 2021

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Journal of Political Economy 129(5) , pp.1508-1552, 2021

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DOI: 10.1086/713101

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/713101

This Journal article is published under the centre's Urban programme.