Book Explores the Intersection of Housing, Jobs and Race
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

If a rising tide lifts all boats, why are so many black citizens in Atlanta’s central core still sinking? David Sjoquist, Fiscal Research Program director and professor of economics addresses that question in “The Atlanta Paradox,” one of four texts exploring the role of racial attitudes, residential segregation and the labor market in major cities that include Detroit, Boston and Los Angeles.

Sjoquist has had a long-standing interest in issues of race and income. In the early 1990s he published several papers on race and the spatial distribution of employment opportunities with former AYSPS professor Keith Ihlanfeldt. “In the late 1960s and early 1970s people had looked at how the spatial distribution of jobs effected employment of blacks, with very mixed results,” said Sjoquist. “We had some ideas of how to look at the issue a little differently.” He said the paper they published in the American Economic Review generated a new set of research that led to their involvement in a project, the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality. Out of that project grew “The Atlanta Paradox.”

For the book, Sjoquist gathered an interdisciplinary assembly of 14 scholars from local universities including Georgia State, Georgia Tech, Morehouse, Emory and UGA and from schools outside the state. They examined data gathered in 1,800 household interviews for the 1993 Greater Atlanta Neighborhood Survey.

The book explores multiple reasons for the contradictions surrounding the metro area’s recent economic expansion that left the city’s urban black population trailing in its wake. Their findings challenge popular beliefs about the extent to which upward mobility is circumscribed by race.

“The paradox is that Atlanta has been growing like crazy, yet the city has this high and persistent poverty rate. So we framed the discussion around that idea: Can we explain this paradox? Is there housing segregation that keeps the poor trapped in the city? Is there this inability to get to jobs in the suburbs, to look for work there, to commute there? Is there still job discrimination?” asked Sjoquist.

Research was collected on the racial attitudes of both black and white individuals. Questions about housing and employment patterns, experiences and perceptions were asked. Among the many findings:

• Racial inequality is surprisingly resistant to economic growth
• Today’s economy rewards skills and education, but the rewards are not the same for everyone
• Job segregation is both a legacy of racism and a sign of black political power
• Although blacks are moving to Atlanta’s northern suburbs in greater numbers, residential segregation still mirrors and reinforces labor market inequality

“The Atlanta Paradox,” one of four volumes in the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality funded by the Ford and Russell Sage foundations, was published in 2000 by the Russell Sage Foundation.

Sjoquist and his colleagues continue to make new contributions to the study of race and equality. Using data from the multi-city survey, he published findings that central city blacks are less likely to search for suburban jobs because of the perception that they will not be socially accepted there. An August 2002 report, “Racial Segregation in Georgia Public Schools, 1994-2001: Trends, Causes, and Impact on Teacher Quality,” authored by AYSPS professors Catherine Freeman, Benjamin Scafidi and Sjoquist, shows the impact of school segregation on the characteristics and turnover rates of teachers.

The most striking finding was the relationship of the percentage of black students to teacher turnover. As Georgia experienced a slight trend toward increased black-white segregation across schools, they found that white teachers, who comprise more than 80 percent of the state’s teachers, were much more likely to leave schools that serve higher proportions of black students.

For more information, go to frp.aysps.gsu.edu