Data and code from: The impact of light-rail stations on income sorting in US urban areas

The impact of public transit (PT) on income sorting in U.S. cities has
long been debated. Theory suggests that richer households may cluster near
PT stations to minimize commute time – or avoid them in favor of more
convenient automobile commuting. The equilibrium depends on factors such
as PT speed relative to cars and the income gap between rich and poor
households. Empirical evidence supports both possibilities, but prior
multi-city studies suffer from identification flaws. Using data from 21
U.S. light-rail (LR) systems built or expanded since 1991, this study
estimates the effect of new LR stations on nearby neighborhood incomes. My
event-study design improves upon earlier work by constructing controls
that match pre-treatment conditions and trends in treated station areas
and by correcting for the bias that staggered treatment timing can
introduce to event study estimates. Across the pooled sample, there is
little evidence that new LR stations make surrounding neighborhoods
poorer. In several cases, new stations increased nearby incomes. The
effects of new stations on income sorting across individual urban areas
are heterogeneous: in denser, low-car cities, LR stations tend to raise
neighborhood incomes, while in more car-dependent cities, their influence
is negligible.