How Much Were Minority Neighborhoods in the United States Affected During COVID-19 in the Aspect of Business Closure Rates? Evidence From Six Metropolitan Areas

Shan Yang and Yasuyuki (Yas) Motoyama

Economic Development Quarterly, 2025, vol. 39, issue 4, 250-260

Abstract: This study evaluates business closure rates in minority neighborhoods within a metropolitan area and extends this analysis across six U.S. metropolitan areas during the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing business and demographic data at the census-tract level, the authors develop a comparative research strategy to explore variations in closure rates among racially diverse neighborhoods. This analysis employs both global and local models to examine spatial interactions among variables associated with business closure rates. The authors use ordinary least squares multivariate regression to identify broad patterns at the metropolitan level and geographically weighted regression to assess local variations and interactions within specific spatial units. The findings reveal diverse dynamics between racial composition and economic outcomes, highlighting uneven closure rates across the metropolitan areas. This study enhances our understanding of the economic impacts on urban neighborhoods during the COVID-19 pandemic by providing detailed comparison analysis and spatial analysis, offering valuable insights for economic development and policy making.

Keywords: business closure rates; minority neighborhoods; urban economics; spatial analysis; comparison analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08912424251374678 (text/html)

Related works:
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:sae:ecdequ:v:39:y:2025:i:4:p:250-260

DOI: 10.1177/08912424251374678

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Economic Development Quarterly
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().