Neighborhood Racial Composition and Business Improvement District

This thesis examines how black population proportions in urban centers vary depending on whether they are covered by special tax zones known as Business Improvement Districts (BIDs). BIDs augment publicly available amenities and have been shown to have positive impacts on public safety and home prices. However, while districts are created predominantly on socioeconomic characteristics like household incomes and local business activity, segregation and racial sorting mechanisms mean racial population proportions vary for reasons outside socioeconomic status. This paper finds that older districts tend to have lower black population proportions than comparable non-BID regions, while the opposite is true for newer districts. It does not find that these districts have a causal impact on racial population proportions.;This research highlights how neighborhood treatments can have disparate impacts within cities due to racial segregation. It adds context to the literature that has found that black populations systematically under consume amenities due to racial sorting mechanisms. It suggests that cities that fail to consider clustering due to racial sorting risk disproportionately benefitting non-black populations when considering impartial neighborhood treatments. It advocates for active municipal involvement in the development and expansion of BID programs to avoid concentrating their benefits in ways that discriminate against black populations.