Income segregation measures the extent to which households choose to live near other households with similar incomes. Sociologists theorize that income segregation can exacerbate the impacts of income inequality, and have developed indices to measure it at the metro area level, including the information theory index introduced in \citet{reardon2011income}, and the divergence index presented in \citet{roberto2015divergence}. To study their differences, we construct both indices using recent American Community Survey (ACS) estimates of features of the income distribution. Since the elimination of the decennial census long form, methods of computing these estimates must be updated to use ACS estimates and account for survey error. We propose a model-based method to interpolate estimates of features of the income distribution that accounts for this error. This method improves on previous approaches by allowing for the use of more types of estimates, and by providing uncertainty quantification. We apply this method to estimate U.S. census tract-level income distributions using ACS tabulations, and in turn use these to construct both income segregation indices. We find major differences between the two indices in the relative ranking of metro areas, as well as differences in how both indices correlate with the Gini index.
翻译:社会学家认为,收入隔离可以加剧收入不平等的影响,并制定了在地铁地区一级衡量这一差异的指数,包括在\citet{reardon2011收入}中引入的信息理论指数和在\citet{roberto2015divegence}中呈现的差异指数。为了研究两者的差异,我们使用最近的美国社区调查对收入分配特征的估算来构建两种指数。自从消除十年一度的人口普查以来,计算这些估计数的方法必须加以更新,以便使用ACS估计数和核算调查错误。我们提出了一个基于模型的方法,用于对计算这一错误的收入分配特征的估计数进行内推。这种方法改进了以往的方法,允许使用更多种类的估计数,并提供不确定性的量化。我们用这种方法估算美国人口普查的分级收入分配情况,使用ACS的制表,然后用这两个方法来构建两种收入隔离指数。我们发现两个指数之间的主要差异,即与指数相对的Grotoro地区之间的对比差异如何。