Neighborhood Choice and Neighborhood Change

Elizabeth E. Bruch, University of California, Los Angeles

This paper uses a computational model, in conjunction with real-world data, to examine the relationship between the residential choices of individuals and aggregate patterns of neighborhood change. First, we simulate mobility under a series of preference regimes that make different assumptions about how people evaluate neighborhoods. For example, are people willing to live in a neighborhood as long as the proportion of own-group neighbors does not fall below a given threshold? Or is neighborhood desirability a smooth function of proportion own-group? Our results demonstrate that, holding mean tolerance constant, changing the functional form of the utility equation can dramatically alter the observed level of residential segregation. Given that different models of neighborhood choice produce different patterns of residential inequality, which one best reflects how people make choices? In the second section of the paper, we evaluate the plausibility of these different utility equations using data on observed mobility behavior for individuals in Los Angeles County.