White Movement to the Suburbs: A Comparison of Explanations

In this study the causes of two aspects of white movement to the suburbs are analyzed: the probability that a white central city resident moved to the suburbs between 1965 and 1970 and the probability that a white in- migrant to metropolitan areas settled in the suburbs. The units of analyses are the 112 metropolitan areas where the central city has a 1960 population of 100000 or more and where the central city and the metropolitan area were not coterminous. Primary concern is with determining whether whites are fleeting central city problems (such as crime taxes strikes race riots and large black populations) or were drawn to the suburbs because it is there that new housing and jobs were located. A model of the suburbanization process is explicated and evaluated using path analysis. (authors)