Microeconomics Seminar with Jessie Handbury (U Penn - Wharton)

America’s neighborhoods and public spaces are segregated along demographic and economic lines,  but we know little about the preferences generating these patterns. This paper uses smartphone movement data to estimate individuals' willingness to travel for social exposure to different groups within commercial venues. To distinguish these preferences from other demand shifters, we study direct trips from residences to venues that belong to chains with multiple locations offering similar services. The size and richness of the data allow us to estimate preferences that are non-monotone in the income and racial/ethnic shares of co-patrons. We estimate heterogeneous, economically substantial preferences for social exposure. While high-income white individuals most prefer venues with the highest shares of their own income and racial group, every other demographic group has preferences that deviate from pure homophily. There are gaps between preferred and experienced social exposure that vary across demographic groups. We investigate potential determinants of these gaps.

Seminar will be in-person. Please sign up for our seminars listserv to receive the details.