RACIAL AND NONRACIAL CAUSES

Franklin D. Wilson for their suggestions and reactions to this paper during various stages of its development. Although residential "white flight " from large central cities is hardly a new phenomenon, its cumulative adverse impact on the residual population has led policy makers to be wary of instituting programs which will further exacerbate the process. Recent policy debates have evolved over the question whether white city-to-suburb movement is affected more significantly by racially-motivated causes on the one hand, or by the general economic and ecological conditions in the city on the other. The present study assesses a number of previously suggested racial and non-racial factors as "pushes " and "pulls " for 1965 to 70 white city-to-suburb movement streams in thirty-nine large SMSAs. Utilizing a two-stage model of mobility, this analysis suggests that most factors, both racial and nonracial, affect white flight less through the decision to move, tha