Racial and Ethnic Inequality in the Duration of Children’s Exposure to Neighborhood Poverty and Affluence

Jeffrey M. Timberlake, University of Cincinnati

Despite recent scholarly concern with “neighborhood effects” on children, no study to date has measured the cumulative exposure of children to neighborhood poverty. In this paper I construct multi-state period life tables to estimate racial and ethnic differences in the amount of time children can expect to live in poor and nonpoor neighborhoods throughout childhood. At early 1990s rates, Black children can expect to spend over 60 percent of childhood in neighborhoods with poverty rates in excess of 20 percent. The corresponding figures for White and Hispanic children are about 14 and 36 percent, respectively. I find that racial differences in childhood exposure to neighborhood poverty are due largely to differences in the probability of being born into a poor neighborhood. Finally, cross-period analyzes indicate that White children are spending an increasing share of childhood in the most affluent type, and Black children are spending more time in the poorest type.