Working Paper: NBER ID: w27688
Authors: Gregorio S. Caetano; Hugh Macartney
Abstract: We develop a novel strategy to identify the relative importance of school and neighborhood factors in determining school segregation. Using detailed student enrollment and residential location data, our research design compares differences in student composition between adjacent Census blocks served by different schools to analogous differences between those schools. Our findings indicate that neighborhood factors explain around 62% of racial segregation and 44% of economic segregation across all schools, playing an even more pronounced role in urban areas, where school segregation has been especially acute. These findings suggest that the involvement of urban planners is essential when attempting to confront inequality of opportunity through education.
Keywords: school segregation; neighborhood factors; socioeconomic inequality; urban planning
JEL Codes: I21; J15; R23
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| neighborhood factors (R23) | racial segregation (J15) |
| neighborhood factors (R23) | economic segregation (I24) |
| neighborhood factors (R23) | school segregation (I24) |
| neighborhood factors + school factors (I24) | school segregation (I24) |
| school factors (I24) | racial segregation (J15) |
| school factors (I24) | economic segregation (I24) |
| affluent families (I31) | affluent students (I24) |
| higher grade levels (A21) | diminished role of school factors in segregation (I24) |