This paper studies the impact of racial representation in local government on individual migration decisions, public goods provision, and residential segregation. By combining individual-level migration data with closely contested mayoral elections, the analysis shows that electing a Black mayor reduces the amenities disparity between majority-Black and white neighborhoods and increases the overall population in majority-Black neighborhoods. The population increase is primarily attributed to decreased out-migration by both Black and white residents. The net effect of these changes is an increase in racial segregation, driven by the greater concentration of Black individuals in majority-Black neighborhoods.

Sesame Street’s representation of minority characters, egalitarian minority-white interactions and portrayal of working women was distinctive in the mass media landscape of 1969, when it started airing. By exploiting both age variation and technological variation in broadcast reception, this paper contributes to the media and contact theory literatures by showing that positive representations of minorities via mass media can reduce long-run prejudice and impact voting, an important societal outcome. We find that for preschool-age children, a 20 percentage point (1 standard deviation) increase in Sesame Street coverage reduced adult measures of implicit racial biases for white respondents and increased reported voting for minority and women candidates by 13 % and 9.7 % respectively. Voter turnout also increased by 4.4 %. Voting for Democratic candidates increased because of the increase in voting for diverse candidates. When the sample is restricted to ballots featuring white men, turnout gains are split between parties.

We draw on statewide data from North Carolina to examine the impacts of racial and ethnic representation in city councils on policing. Specifically, we focus on outcomes of traffic stops; e.g., whether a driver receives a warning or a citation after being stopped. We first document large Black-white and Latino-white disparities in the likelihood of consequence (arrest or citation) after a traffic stop. We then use a difference-in-differences design, focusing on changes following (narrow) elections of nonwhite (rather than white) councilmembers, and find that increased nonwhite council representation significantly reduces Black-white gaps in stops and actions taken after a stop. The magnitude of the reduction is similar with and without officer fixed effects, suggesting that results are largely driven by individual officer-level behavior change rather than a change in the composition of the police force.