Only recently have segregation scholars begun to acknowledge that change in neighborhood ethnic and racial composition depends upon the urban context which defines the set of alternatives for households making decisions about neighborhood relocation or settlement. If the complexities of neighborhood change are to be unraveled, the effects of inter-city variations in segregation structure and housing markets must be better understood. The proposed research will develop and evaluate a hierarchical model of neighborhood change within cities of the Southwest. The first phase of the project is designed to identify neighborhood and metropolitan level characteristics associated with rapid changes in the ethnic character of neighborhoods with a specific focus on the changing mix of Mexican and Anglo households. The second stage of the project focuses on the neighborhood choices made by Mexicans and Anglos and how these choices are influenced by personal and household attributes in conjunction with contextual conditions that vary from one neighborhood to another and vary across the metropolitan areas in the sample. A multi-scale methodology will be used that incorporates hierarchical statistical techniques for analyzing linear and non-linear effects at several scales, geographical information systems to analyze spatially-based neighborhood attributes, and analysis of geo-coded samples from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics.
