Segregation Explains Class, Not Race Marriages

An AER study uses childhood neighborhood exposure (instrumented by nearby opposite‑sex children of other groups) and a spatial marriage model to show that greater exposure raises interclass marriages but has no detectable effect on White–Black interracial marriage. The model estimates residential segregation explains over one‑third of class assortative mating but under 5% of racial endogamy. — If residential integration reduces class endogamy but not racial endogamy, housing and school‑integration policies can address some drivers of economic inequality across generations but will not be sufficient to change patterns of racial segregation in marriage.