Flight from Urban Blight: Lead Poisoning, Crime, and Suburbanization

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Curci, Federico; Masera, Federico
• 署名单位: CUNEF Universidad; University of New South Wales Sydney
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01323
• 发表日期: 2025-05
• 页码: 621-638
• 关键词: postwar suburbanization; water pipes; desegregation; exposure; CHILDREN; cities; soils

摘要

In this paper we study the effect of violent crime on residential and firms location decisions and their implications for segregation in cities. We do so by proposing a new instrument to exogenously predict violent crime in city centers. We base our instrument on chemical and medical evidence that links local characteristics of the soil to lead poisoning and aggression. We show that the increase in violent crime between 1960 and 1990 due to lead poisoning moved almost 8 million people to the suburbs. Firms followed by leaving the city centers. We then show that the suburbanization process was characterized by white flight.