Working Paper: NBER ID: w16664
Authors: Rucker C. Johnson
Abstract: This paper investigates the long-run impacts of court-ordered school desegregation on an array of adult socioeconomic and health outcomes. The study analyzes the life trajectories of children born between 1945 and 1968, and followed through 2013, using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The PSID data are linked with multiple data sources that describe the neighborhood attributes, school quality resources, and coincident policies that prevailed at the time these children were growing up. I exploit quasi-random variation in the timing of initial court orders, which generated differences in the timing and scope of the implementation of desegregation plans during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. Event study analyses as well as 2SLS and sibling-difference estimates indicate that school desegregation and the accompanied increases in school quality resulted in significant improvements in adult attainments for blacks. I find that, for blacks, school desegregation significantly increased both educational and occupational attainments, college quality and adult earnings, reduced the probability of incarceration, and improved adult health status; desegregation had no effects on whites across each of these outcomes. The results suggest that the mechanisms through which school desegregation led to beneficial adult attainment outcomes for blacks include improvement in access to school resources reflected in reductions in class size and increases in per-pupil spending.
Keywords: School Desegregation; School Quality; Adult Attainments; Socioeconomic Outcomes; Health Outcomes
JEL Codes: I00; I21; I28; J15
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| School desegregation (I24) | Educational and occupational attainments (I24) |
| Each additional year of exposure to desegregation (I24) | Completed years of education (I21) |
| Each additional year of exposure to desegregation (I24) | Likelihood of graduating from high school (I21) |
| Desegregation (Y40) | College quality (I23) |
| Each additional year of exposure to desegregation (I24) | Wages (J31) |
| Court-ordered desegregation (L49) | Wages (J31) |
| Desegregation (Y40) | Probability of incarceration (K14) |
| Desegregation (Y40) | Adult health status (I12) |