| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation examines the economic and social consequences of breakthrough Black mayors using modern microeconometric methods. The first essay explores the relationship between the election of Black candidates and the distribution of economic activity at the zip-code level. I find that employment, establishments, and payroll increase in majority-Black communities which is further evidenced by relative increases in self employment among Black residents. The second essay explores the totemic issue of public safety. Black mayors increase diversity in policing ranks by hiring more Black and female officers. These changes to department composition do not lead to changes in the pattern of race-specific arrests however. In addition, I find that increases to police force size induced by Black elections lead to decreases in violent arrests among Black residents without commensurate increases in arrests where officers exercise discretion. The third essay focuses on representational changes in the post-Civil Rights era in four large cities in Alabama. Leveraging timing variation in Black political efficacy, I re-examine topics using recent insights in difference-in-differences design and, then, discuss issues that are difficult to identify econometrically. Black mayors perform no differently than their White counterparts along numerous, observable dimensions. A notable exception is that Black residents are 1 percentage point more likely to be in the labor force after a Black election, and unemployment decreases for Black residents in Birmingham, the city that elects a Black candidate the earliest. | |
