Randall P Walsh
Biographic Data
| ID | 3960700 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Randall P Walsh |
| GIVEN NAMES | Randall P |
| FAMILY NAME | Walsh |
| SIGNATURE | WALSH R P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Pittsburgh and NBER |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 108 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Racial Segregation in Housing Markets and the Erosion of Black Wealth
This paper studies how the expansion of segregated neighborhoods eroded black wealth in prewar American cities. Using a novel sample of matched addresses, we find that over a single decade rental prices soared by roughly 50% on city blocks that transitioned from all white to majority black. Meanwhile, pioneering black families paid a 28% premium to buy a home on a majority white block, after which their homes lost 10% of their value. These findin…
The Holc Maps: How Race and Poverty Influenced Real Estate Professionals' Evaluation of Lending Risk in the 1930s
During the late 1930s, the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) developed a series of area descriptions with color-coded maps of cities that summarized mortgage lending risk. We analyze the maps to explain the oft-noted fact that black neighborhoods overwhelmingly received the lowest rating. Our results suggest that racial bias in the construction of the HOLC maps can explain at most 4 to 20 percent of the observed concentration of black househol…
Zoning and segregation in urban economic history
Racial Sorting and the Emergence of Segregation in American Cities
Residential segregation by race grew sharply during the early twentieth century as black migrants from the South arrived in northern cities. Using newly assembled neighborhood-level data, we provide the first systematic evidence on the impact of prewar population dynamics within cities on the emergence of the American ghetto. Leveraging exogenous changes in neighborhood racial composition, we show that white flight in response to black arrivals w…
Zoning and the economic geography of cities
Segregation and neighborhood change in northern cities: New historical GIS data from 1900–1930
Most quantitative research on segregation and neighborhood change in American cities prior to 1940 has utilized data published by the Census Bureau at the ward level. The transcription of census manuscripts has made it possible to aggregate individual records to a finer level, the enumeration district (ED). Advances in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have facilitated mapping these data, opening new possibilities for historical GIS research. …
Segregation and Tiebout sorting: The link between place-based investments and neighborhood tipping
Do People Vote with Their Feet? An Empirical Test of Tiebout's Mechanism
Charles Tiebout's suggestion that people “vote with their feet” for communities with optimal bundles of taxes and public goods has played a central role in local public finance for over 50 years. Using a locational equilibrium model, we derive formal tests of his premise. The model predicts increased population density in neighborhoods experiencing exogenous improvements in public goods and, for large improvements, increased relative mean incomes…
Endogenous gender power, household labor supply and the demographic transition
Urban Sprawl
The authors begin with an overview of the causes and consequences of urban sprawl in the twentieth century, focusing in particular on lower transportation costs and self-sorting of the population. By sprawl, we will mean the tendency toward lower city densities as city footprints expand. They next focus on four issues that raise clear efficiency and equity concerns: unproductive congestion on roads, high levels of metropolitan car pollution, the …
Urban Sprawl
The authors begin with an overview of the causes and consequences of urban sprawl in the twentieth century, focusing in particular on lower transportation costs and self-sorting of the population. By sprawl, we will mean the tendency toward lower city densities as city footprints expand. They next focus on four issues that raise clear efficiency and equity concerns: unproductive congestion on roads, high levels of metropolitan car pollution, the …
Endogenous gender power, household labor supply and the demographic transition
Zoning and the economic geography of cities
Segregation and Tiebout sorting: The link between place-based investments and neighborhood tipping
Segregation and neighborhood change in northern cities: New historical GIS data from 1900–1930
Most quantitative research on segregation and neighborhood change in American cities prior to 1940 has utilized data published by the Census Bureau at the ward level. The transcription of census manuscripts has made it possible to aggregate individual records to a finer level, the enumeration district (ED). Advances in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have facilitated mapping these data, opening new possibilities for historical GIS research. …
The Holc Maps: How Race and Poverty Influenced Real Estate Professionals' Evaluation of Lending Risk in the 1930s
During the late 1930s, the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) developed a series of area descriptions with color-coded maps of cities that summarized mortgage lending risk. We analyze the maps to explain the oft-noted fact that black neighborhoods overwhelmingly received the lowest rating. Our results suggest that racial bias in the construction of the HOLC maps can explain at most 4 to 20 percent of the observed concentration of black househol…
Urban Sprawl
The authors begin with an overview of the causes and consequences of urban sprawl in the twentieth century, focusing in particular on lower transportation costs and self-sorting of the population. By sprawl, we will mean the tendency toward lower city densities as city footprints expand. They next focus on four issues that raise clear efficiency and equity concerns: unproductive congestion on roads, high levels of metropolitan car pollution, the …
Endogenous gender power, household labor supply and the demographic transition
Do People Vote with Their Feet? An Empirical Test of Tiebout's Mechanism
Charles Tiebout's suggestion that people “vote with their feet” for communities with optimal bundles of taxes and public goods has played a central role in local public finance for over 50 years. Using a locational equilibrium model, we derive formal tests of his premise. The model predicts increased population density in neighborhoods experiencing exogenous improvements in public goods and, for large improvements, increased relative mean incomes…
Segregation and Tiebout sorting: The link between place-based investments and neighborhood tipping
Segregation and neighborhood change in northern cities: New historical GIS data from 1900–1930
Most quantitative research on segregation and neighborhood change in American cities prior to 1940 has utilized data published by the Census Bureau at the ward level. The transcription of census manuscripts has made it possible to aggregate individual records to a finer level, the enumeration district (ED). Advances in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have facilitated mapping these data, opening new possibilities for historical GIS research. …
Zoning and the economic geography of cities
Racial Sorting and the Emergence of Segregation in American Cities
Residential segregation by race grew sharply during the early twentieth century as black migrants from the South arrived in northern cities. Using newly assembled neighborhood-level data, we provide the first systematic evidence on the impact of prewar population dynamics within cities on the emergence of the American ghetto. Leveraging exogenous changes in neighborhood racial composition, we show that white flight in response to black arrivals w…
Zoning and segregation in urban economic history
The Holc Maps: How Race and Poverty Influenced Real Estate Professionals' Evaluation of Lending Risk in the 1930s
During the late 1930s, the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) developed a series of area descriptions with color-coded maps of cities that summarized mortgage lending risk. We analyze the maps to explain the oft-noted fact that black neighborhoods overwhelmingly received the lowest rating. Our results suggest that racial bias in the construction of the HOLC maps can explain at most 4 to 20 percent of the observed concentration of black househol…
Racial Segregation in Housing Markets and the Erosion of Black Wealth
This paper studies how the expansion of segregated neighborhoods eroded black wealth in prewar American cities. Using a novel sample of matched addresses, we find that over a single decade rental prices soared by roughly 50% on city blocks that transitioned from all white to majority black. Meanwhile, pioneering black families paid a 28% premium to buy a home on a majority white block, after which their homes lost 10% of their value. These findin…
Economics (8 works) · Geography (7 works) · Housing Market and Economics (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies (7 works) · Population (6 works) · Economic geography (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Civil engineering (3 works) · Demographic economics (3 works)