The Effects of the 1930s HOLC "Redlining" Maps

Daniel Aaronson, Daniel Hartley and Bhashkar Mazumder

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2021, vol. 13, issue 4, 355-92

Abstract: This study uses a boundary design and propensity score methods to study the effects of the 1930s-era Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) "redlining" maps on the long-run trajectories of urban neighborhoods. The maps led to reduced home ownership rates, house values, and rents and increased racial segregation in later decades. A comparison on either side of a city-level population cutoff that determined whether maps were drawn finds broadly similar conclusions. These results suggest the HOLC maps had meaningful and lasting effects on the development of urban neighborhoods through reduced credit access and subsequent disinvestment.

JEL-codes: G21 J15 N32 N42 N92 R23 R31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20190414 (application/pdf)
https://doi.org/10.3886/E127803V1 (text/html)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20190414.appx (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20190414.ds (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: The Effects of the 1930s HOLC \"Redlining\" Maps (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:355-92

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

DOI: 10.1257/pol.20190414

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy is currently edited by Matthew Shapiro

More articles in American Economic Journal: Economic Policy from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().