Description:

Speaker: Michael Giordano

Title:

Park Avenues: Wealth, Neighborhoods, and Mobility in Gilded Age Manhattan.

Abstract: The Neighborhoods Hypothesis holds that economic mobility is influenced by the socioeconomic status of residents nearby. Existing research focuses on demand-side interventions-offering families opportunities to move to high-status areas. This paper uses the creation of Central Park (1858-1876) as a natural experiment to examine a supply-side intervention, where, following the American Civil War, a rich neighborhood springs up around existing households. Using topographic variation to separate treated and untreated households, I find that, conditional on already possessing property, treated households see 70% larger wealth gains than comparable untreated households between 1860 and 1870. By 1900, though, the economic status of children from treated and untreated households is statistically indistinguishable across multiple measures. These findings suggest that, in this setting, exogenous increases in neighborhood amenities and household wealth did not have sustained effects on future mobility.