Reports of rising income segregation in the United States have been brought into question by the observation that post-2000 estimates are upwardly biased because of a reduction in the sample sizes on which they are based. Recent studies have offered estimates of this sample-count bias using public data. We show here that there are two substantial sources of systematic bias in estimating segregation levels: bias associated with sample size and bias associated with using weighted sample data. We rely on new correction methods using the original census sample data for individual households to provide more accurate estimates. Family income segregation rose markedly in the 1980s but only selectively after 1990. For some categories of families, segregation declined after 1990. There has been an upward trend for families with children but not specifically for families with children in the upper or lower 10% of the income distribution. Separate analyses by race/ethnicity show that income segregation was not generally higher among Blacks and Hispanics than among White families, and evidence of income segregation trends for these separate groups is mixed. Income segregation increased for all three racial groups for families with children, particularly for Hispanics (but not Whites or Blacks) in the upper 10% of the income distribution. Trends vary for specific combinations of race/ethnicity, presence of children, and location in the income distribution, offering new challenges for understanding the underlying processes of change.

中文翻译：

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收入隔离：上升还是下降，为谁？


关于美国收入隔离加剧的报告受到了质疑，因为观察到 2000 年后的估计由于所依据的样本量减少而存在向上偏差。最近的研究使用公共数据对这种样本计数偏差进行了估计。我们在这里表明，在估计隔离水平时存在两个重要的系统偏差来源：与样本大小相关的偏差和与使用加权样本数据相关的偏差。我们依靠新的修正方法，使用单个家庭的原始人口普查样本数据来提供更准确的估计。家庭收入隔离在 20 世纪 80 年代显着增加，但在 1990 年后只是选择性地增加。对于某些类别的家庭，隔离在 1990 年后有所下降。有孩子的家庭呈上升趋势，但不特别是有孩子处于收入中上或下 10% 的家庭。收入分配。按种族/族裔进行的单独分析表明，黑人和西班牙裔家庭的收入隔离程度并不普遍高于白人家庭，而且这些不同群体的收入隔离趋势的证据也参差不齐。对于有孩子的家庭来说，所有三个种族群体的收入隔离都在加剧，特别是对于收入分配中前 10% 的西班牙裔（但不是白人或黑人）。趋势因种族/民族、儿童存在以及收入分配位置的特定组合而异，为理解潜在的变化过程带来了新的挑战。