Residential Choice Constraints and Environmental Justice * Yushim Kim, Arizona State University Heather Campbell, Claremont Graduate University Adam Eckerd, Virginia Tech Objective. In the environmental justice literature, uncertainty exists about the under- lying causes of environmental risk disparities, especially as they relate to residential choices. To simplify, the two dominant views are racism/discrimination versus in- evitable market dynamics. In this article, we move aside from these to examine the potential role of various residential choice constraints on environmental injustice and how they may be interrelated. Methods. Using an agent-based simulation model, we examine the interaction of race-based constraints with other experimental conditions that can affect minorities’ residential choice sets. Results. Simulation experiments demonstrate that if the minority holds relatively lower similarity preferences, the environmental quality gap declines when other conditions are held constant. How- ever, racial parity in communities also decreases the environmental quality gap, as do slower population growth and larger geographies. Conclusion. These results enable us to look at the problem of race-based environmental injustice more holistically, and begin to think about holistic solutions that may finally address what has heretofore been an intractable social problem. One major focus of environmental justice (EJ) research concerns the dis- proportionate collocation of environmental disamenities with the poor or racial/ethnic minorities. Substantial evidence of environmental injustice has been accumulated at various societal levels (e.g., Ringquist, 2005; Mohai, Pellow, and Roberts, 2009), but these studies are not without conflicting findings (e.g., Hamilton, 1995). In search of a reason for these inconsistent conclusions, EJ researchers have pointed out that the empirical results are sensitive to analytical decisions such as the spatial unit of analysis (Baden, Noonan, and Turaga, 2007; Noonan, 2008) and model specification (Bowen, Atlas, and Lee, 2009; Chun, Kim, and Campbell, 2012). Though important, the debate does not necessarily answer the underlying causal question: What social processes or conditions drive differential racial exposures to environmental risk? Early EJ research was premised on the as- sumption that racially disparate outcomes occur because some firms (or other * Direct correspondenceto Yushim Kim, School of Public Affairs, Arizona State University, 411 N. Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85004 ⟨ykim@asu.edu⟩. Yushim Kim will share the simulation model and coding for the purposes of replication. SOCIAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY, Volume 95, Number 1, March 2014 C  2013 by the Southwestern Social Science Association DOI: 10.1111/ssqu.12033