New-ish report from the Economic Mobility Project: Patrick Sharkey, “Neighborhoods and the Black-White Mobility Gap,” (July 2009). The executive summary can be found here and the abstract is below:
One of the most powerful findings of the Economic Mobility Project’s research to date has been the striking mobility gap between blacks and whites in America. Over a generation, white children are more likely than blacks to experience upward mobility in adulthood, while black children are more likely than whites to experience downward mobility. This report, authored by New York University sociologist, Patrick Sharkey, finds that growing up in a high-poverty neighborhood increases the risk of experiencing downward mobility and explains a sizable portion of the black-white downward mobility gap. These data suggest that public policy efforts that focus on investing in disadvantaged neighborhoods and reducing the concentration of poverty could enhance economic mobility for the children in those neighborhoods.
Poverty Law 