East Side Story: Historical Pollution and Persistent Neighborhood Sorting

Please send an email to Nadine Ketel or Paul Muller if you are interested to participate in this seminar (series).

Why are the east sides of formerly industrial cities often the more deprived?Using individual-level census data together with newly created historical pol-lution patterns derived from the locations of 5,000 industrial chimneys and anatmospheric model, we show that this results from the persistence of neigh-borhood sorting that first emerged during the Industrial Revolution whenprevailing winds blew pollution eastwards. Past pollution explains up to 20%of the observed neighborhood segregation in 2011, even though coal pollutionstopped in the 1970s. We develop a quantitative model to identify the role ofneighborhood effects and relocation rigidities underlying this persistence. Joint with Stephan Heblich and Alex Trew.

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Keywords: Neighborhood Sorting, Historical Pollution, Persistence.
JEL codes: R23, Q53, N00.