Document Type
Thesis or dissertation
Date of this Version
2023
Advisor
Shane Jensen
Abstract
Stemming from the large wealth inequality in the US, gentrification arises as an issue for many US cities due to the increasing prices and displacement of locals. A contributor to gentrification and displacement is the tech industry which has become vastly relevant in the previous years with multiple tech booms. This thesis looks into secondary demographic gentrification effects the tech industry might have in cities. The US Census American Community Survey (ACS) 1 year data is used; with computer and mathematical occupations as a measure for tech presence and gender and racial demographic changes throughout time as a measure for displacement. Other urban features that could drive gentrification (eg. income) are used as controlling variables to isolate tech employment itself. After running simple, logistic, and multi regressions, there are no estimated significant secondary effects from the tech industry for any of the demographics measured found. Findings do indicate that a city with more tech employment is less likely to see changes in single race demographics. Past discoveries, these findings, and other future research on the tech industry, gentrification, and displacement are significant to informing decisions, especially with the increasing use of tech and expanding tech industry.
Keywords
gentrification, displacement, tech industry
Recommended Citation
Vo, A. (2023). "Tech-trification: Analyzing Secondary Demographic Effects of Tech Occupations on Urban Gentrification and Displacement," Joseph Wharton Scholars. Available at https://repository.upenn.edu/joseph_wharton_scholars/147
Additional Files
thesis.py (2 kB)Python for pulling and cleaning Census data
Thesis.Rmd (43 kB)
R for running regressions
Date Posted: 24 May 2023