Randal O’Toole writes that economic mobility is unrelated to urban sprawl as suggested by Paul Krugman:
The Equality of Opportunity Project found that economic mobility is low throughout the South (except Texas), not just in Atlanta. But the differences in the unit measured — the percentage of children in the bottom fifth of incomes who end up in the top fifth — are small, ranging from 4 percent in Atlanta to 11 percent in San Jose. Moreover, what differences there are appear to be unrelated to sprawl: Chicago, a fairly dense area, is almost as low as Atlanta, while Pittsburgh, a fairly low-density area, is almost as high as San Jose.
The study lists a lot of factors that seem to correlate with low economic mobility, but none of them are related to population density or sprawl. The most important factors appear to be tax rates, racial residential segregation, K-12 school quality, and the percentage of single-parent families. The South scores particularly high on racial residential segregation and low on K-12 schools, which together go much further toward explaining its relatively low economic mobility than urban sprawl.
The factors that affect economic mobility or equal opportunity are fairly obvious but worth repeating:
- tax rates;
- residential segregation;
- quality education; and
- family structure.
The first three are within reach of positive government intervention, but I suspect the last — broken family ties — is the most pernicious and difficult to reverse.
Read more at Sprawl Does Not Reduce Economic Mobility | Cato @ Liberty.