Accounting for Measurement Instability in Census-Tract Level Mortgage Discrimination via Joint Modeling

Music City Center 

Racial disparities in cognitive health reflect entrenched structural inequalities. The Mortgage Density Index Ratio (MDIR) quantifies census-tract level housing and lending discrimination, but it may be unstable in hypersegregated areas. To address this, we developed a joint modeling approach that simultaneously estimates cognitive outcomes and latent mortgage rates for Black and White households. In simulations, joint modeling showed notably lower bias and greater robustness in small- to moderate- sized census tracts compared to traditional regression approaches. Applying joint modeling to six cognitive domains in Michigan Cognitive Aging Project (MCAP) data (N = 644), we identified a significant association between MDIR and processing speed only among Black participants, with a one-unit MDIR increase (i.e., greater racial parity in mortgage lending) corresponding to a 0.48 SD improvement in processing speed (95% CI: 0.05-0.93). Traditional regression failed to detect this effect. These findings underscore the importance of advanced statistical methods in quantifying structural racism and highlight the disproportionate effects of mortgage discrimination in Black adults.

Measurement error

Joint modeling

Hypersegregation

Health disparities 

Social Statistics Section