A Direct Test of the "Explanation" for Incomplete Stratification in Vertical Sorting Models

Abstract

This paper uses the 2011 Phoenix Area Social Survey to evaluate the plausibility of the assumptions made with pure characteristics or vertical sorting models to rationalize incomplete stratification of households across local communities by income. The analysis with a well-recognized index of environmental attitudes, the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP), confirms the correlations in equilibrium outcomes implied by these models. As a result, it supports the role of differences in the tastes for public goods as an explanation for the sorting outcomes.