Urban segregation and local retail environments. Evidence from Mexico City

This paper addresses urban segregation in terms of the spatial availability of everyday consumer goods and services to urban households at the local level. The paper distinguishes low and high-income segregated areas as well as non-segregated areas within Mexico City metropolitan area, and compares the distribution of firms where households may acquire every day consumer goods and services within each type of area. The analysis shows that the main differences between low and high-income segregated areas in terms of retail environments in which they buy their main satisfiers are (1) low-income segregated areas have the lowest retail density, have the least firms per capita, and thus, these are spatially scarcer (2) both private and public providers (particularly those related to education and health) show less quality in terms of the relative number employees per business. The evidence suggests that income segregation generates an unequal demand of goods and services across the city, which excludes important sectors of urban population from the collective benefits of such satisfiers.