Christopher Timmins, Professor of Real Estate and Urban Land Economics, Wisconsin School of Business, UW–Madison
A long literature in environmental justice has documented the disproportionate exposure of low-income and BIPOC groups to environmental harms, but research continues to explore the mechanisms leading to these disparities. Inequitable siting of pollution sources or enforcement of environmental regulations have been found to be important, but discrimination, information asymmetries and other housing market failures may also play an important role. This talk will present results from recent research on housing discrimination with a focus on how these activities might steer certain groups of housing seekers into unhealthy, low-opportunity neighborhoods.