Graziella Bertocchi (Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia) on "COVID-19, race, and redlining" (with Arcangelo Dimico)

Speaker:  Graziella Bertocchi - Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia
  Wednesday, January 20, 2021 at 12:00 PM Zoom webinar: https://univr.zoom.us/j/81429135377
 Using individual, race-disaggregated, and georeferenced death data collected by the Cook County Medical Examiner, we look at the impact of COVID-19 on African Americans and at its determinants. First, we provide evidence that - as of June 16, 2020 - blacks in Cook County are dying from COVID-19 at a rate 1.3 times higher than their population share. Second, by combining the spatial distribution of mortality with the redlining maps for the Chicago area, we establish that - after the epidemic outbreak - historically lower-graded neighborhoods display a sharper increase in mortality, driven by blacks. Thus, we uncover a persistence influence of the racial segregation induced by the lending practices of the 1930s, by way of a diminished resilience of African Americans to the COVID-19 shock. Such influence is channeled through socioeconomic status and household composition, and magnified in combination with a higher black share.  
 

Programme Director
Roberto Ricciuti

External reference
Publication date
November 4, 2020

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