Universities, as anchor institutions and keystones of the post-industrial economy, are assuming leading roles in cities' economic and social development, often leveraging university capital directly for purposes of neighborhood revitalization in projects referred to herein as anchor institution initiatives. Such initiatives, however, may be attracting higher income individuals and displacing lower income residents rather than building community capacity. This dissertation utilizes decennial United States census data from 1970 to 2010 to examine the effects on gentrification of anchor institution initiatives in multiple cities across the country. Using a difference-in-differences approach, a gentrification composite variable for census tracts targeted by anchor institution initiatives is compared to the composite for similar tracts within the same core-based statistical area, providing plausibly causal estimates of the relationship between gentrification and the initiatives. Further research questions explore how the nature of the initiative differentially affects gentrification and whether treatment assignment is determined by the vulnerability of the targeted neighborhood to be gentrified. There is evidence anchor initiatives have a negative effect on gentrification, though the negative effect is not large enough to override the larger, positive trends in gentrification across time. Additionally, financial strategies tend to slow gentrification the most, while physical strategies may accelerate gentrification. Finally, the vulnerability of a tract to be gentrified does predict whether a tract is targeted by an initiative. These results in part answer the call for quantitative analyses of the community outcomes of university community engagement, and the research can inform and guide university community engagement in efforts to build community wealth without displacement.
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