Household mobility and neighborhood impacts

2018-07-20This dissertation uses tax filing data for Los Angeles County to assess whether patterns of residential mobility have changed after the introduction of a new rail transit system in the region. This research provides new ways to measure how often and where households move and to compare against prevailing neighborhood-level and county-level patterns. This research extends the empirical literature on the effects of new rail transit systems in gentrifying nearby neighborhoods and displacing prior residents, including at-risk sub-population such as lower-income households, families with children, young households, and elderly households. Using a series of empirical and descriptive methods, this dissertation explores whether new rail station openings affect neighborhood-level mobility averages (Chapter 1), individual propensity to move (Chapter 2), and move destination (Chapter 3). Findings suggest that effects of new rail transit systems on moving are nuanced and heterogeneous with respect to time and geography. The evidence also suggests that future research should focus not only on moving but on other methods of coping with rising housing costs including overcrowding, consuming less, or paying more. This dissertation also sheds light on the need to incorporate mobility statistics into policymaking and urban planning and provides a potential data source and methodology