Do Public Goods Actually Reduce Inequality?

Public goods are meant to be universal, but they are inherently place-based. This paper systematically measures spatial access to public goods and quantifies the implications of distance to public facilities for income inequality. First, we map all schools and hospitals across Belgium. We compute the distance to facilities for each of the 20,000 neighborhoods and document large spatial inequalities in access to public facilities. Second, we find that this unequal distribution favors high-income neighborhoods: allocating public goods spending proportionally to our access index increases income inequality compared to measures based solely on disposable income. Third, we show that the positive relationship between income and access can be rationalized by a simple model of public goods allocation with an inequality-neutral social planner. Finally, we provide evidence that access is strongly correlated with educational and health outcomes, emphasizing the need to consider the place-based nature of public goods when measuring inequality.