ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses somewhat surprising welfare implication of the cumulative decay process agrees with B. J. L. Berry's passage. It deals with analogous movements within the city. Metropolitan developments in North America have been characterised by an exodus of the middle class from the central city to the suburbs. Since the middle class in North America is mostly white and since central cities in the United States have become increasingly black, it remains unclear whether such exodus was initially triggered by a quest for a better physical environment or by an aversion to blacks. The softening of middle-class demand for the housing stock lowered its relative price and permitted a sharp decline in overcrowding for low-income people. The utility of the rich on the other hand decreases. This happens because, according to the number of rich in the city decreases at the same time. Then the surplus number of rich diffuses in the alternative sector, causing a decline of utility.
