The Impact of Compositional and Redistributive Forces on Poverty Concentration

Abstract

Changes in poverty concentration have been shown to result from intrametropolitan forces that redistribute population among neighborhoods and metropolitan-wide forces that alter the overall population composition of metropolitan areas. The author examines the degree to which these two forces affected levels of poverty concentration within the Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan region from 1980 to 1990. Although redistributive forces functioned to increase poverty concentration, these forces were overwhelmed by the aggregate increase in the nonpoor over the time period. As a result, both the African-American and white poor were slightly less residentially exposed to poverty in 1990 than in 1980. However, the African-American poor were also less exposed to nonpoor African-Americans and whites. Evidence suggests that poor populations in Atlanta did make residential moves that would reduce their spatial isolation, but such moves were overwhelmed by the residential movement of the nonpoor.