Working Paper: NBER ID: w22502
Authors: Will S. Dobbie; Roland G. Fryer Jr.
Abstract: We estimate the impact of charter schools on early-life labor market outcomes using administrative data from Texas. We find that, at the mean, charter schools have no impact on test scores and a negative impact on earnings. No Excuses charter schools increase test scores and four-year college enrollment, but have a small and statistically insignificant impact on earnings, while other types of charter schools decrease test scores, four-year college enrollment, and earnings. Moving to school-level estimates, we find that charter schools that decrease test scores also tend to decrease earnings, while charter schools that increase test scores have no discernible impact on earnings. In contrast, high school graduation effects are predictive of earnings effects throughout the distribution of school quality. The paper concludes with a speculative discussion of what might explain our set of facts.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I20; I26
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| charter schools (I28) | earnings (J31) |
| no excuses charter schools (I24) | test scores (C52) |
| no excuses charter schools (I24) | four-year college enrollment (I23) |
| regular charter schools (L39) | test scores (C52) |
| regular charter schools (L39) | four-year college enrollment (I23) |
| regular charter schools (L39) | earnings (J31) |
| high school graduation effects (I21) | labor market outcomes (J48) |