Title

Can you move to opportunity? Evidence from the Great Migration

Author(s)

Ellora Derenoncourt Ellora Derenoncourt (Princeton University)

Abstract

This paper shows that racial composition shocks during the Great Migration (1940-1970) reduced the gains from growing up in the northern United States for Black families and can explain 27% of the region’s racial upward mobility gap today. I identify northern Black share increases by interacting pre-1940 Black migrants’ location choices with predicted southern county out-migration. Locational changes, not negative selection of families, explain lower upward mobility, with persistent segregation and increased crime and policing as plausible mechanisms. The case of the Great Migration provides a more nuanced view of moving to opportunity when destination reactions are taken into account.

Creation Date

2021-08

Section URL ID

Paper Number

2021-17

URL

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4gno1z4hzns4c6u/derenoncourt_2021.pdf?dl=0

File Function

Jel

R23

Keyword(s)

migration

Suppress

false

Series

13