Robert A. Margo
Professor of Economics and African American Studies
Boston University
at time of fellowship
2008 to 2009
Robert A. Margo, Professor of Economics and African American Studies at Boston University, will complete a book on the historic evolution of racial differences in housing. Margo will analyze long-run trends in home ownership, property values, residential segregation, urban riots, and relevant legal and policy issues. Margo suggests that contemporary discourse on housing disparities lacks a crucial historical perspective, and that these trends defy one simple explanation such as government policy or the state of mortgage markets, and are instead the result of the complex array of factors enumerated above.