Race, Ethnicity, and Discriminatory Zoning

Zoning policies can have marked impacts on the spatial distribution of people and land use, yet there is little systematic evidence on their origin. Investigating the causes of these regulations is complicated by the fact that land use and zoning have been co-evolving for nearly a century. We employ a novel approach to overcome this challenge, studying the factors underpinning the introduction of comprehensive zoning in Chicago. We find evidence consistent with a precursor to exclusionary zoning as well as support for the hypothesis that industrial use zoning was disproportionately allocated to neighborhoods populated by ethnic and racial minorities.