Does Municipal Incorporation Influence Levels of Black-White Segregation? Evidence from Counties in the Southern United States, 1990–2010

highlights:

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Municipal incorporation is positively related to the change in Black-White segregation across southern counties.

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Holding all else constant, new city formation increases Black-White county-level segregation by 2 percent.

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Possible effects on a proposed municipality’s neighbors may be a key issue to consider during the approval process.

Over 400 municipalities have been created since 1990, the majority of which are in the American South. Though municipal incorporation can bring positive changes to a locality, such as higher home values and economic growth, the creation of new cities leads to more fragmented political geographies resulting in negative outcomes like inefficient resource and land use. Recent studies of newly incorporated municipalities (NIMs) find that these newly created cities tend to be either majority White or majority non-White or BIPOC. This type of Tieboutian residential sorting has been linked to increased levels of racial segregation in some areas of the US with recent evidence showing that parts of the country remain highly segregated, especially between Black Americans and White Americans. The present study seeks to quantitatively examine the relationship between municipal incorporation and change in Black-White racial segregation in the South between 1990 and 2010. Using both a first difference regression model and a spatial first different regression model, we find evidence that municipal incorporation is positively related to the change in Black-White racial segregation across southern counties. A discussion of the results is offered.