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Police shootings, civic unrest and student achievement: evidence from Ferguson

Author

Listed:
  • Seth Gershenson
  • Michael S Hayes

Abstract

We document externalities of the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager and the resultant civic unrest experienced in Ferguson, MO. Difference-in-differences estimates compare Ferguson-area schools to neighboring schools in the greater St. Louis area and find that the unrest led to statistically significant, arguably causal declines in elementary school students’ math and reading achievement. Attendance is one mechanism through which this effect operated, as chronic absence increased by 5% in Ferguson-area schools. Impacts were concentrated in the bottom of the achievement distribution and spilled over into majority black schools throughout the greater St. Louis area.

Suggested Citation

  • Seth Gershenson & Michael S Hayes, 2018. "Police shootings, civic unrest and student achievement: evidence from Ferguson," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(3), pages 663-685.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jecgeo:v:18:y:2018:i:3:p:663-685.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jeg/lbx014
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Seth Gershenson & Erdal Tekin, 2018. "The Effect of Community Traumatic Events on Student Achievement: Evidence from the Beltway Sniper Attacks," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 13(4), pages 513-544, Fall.
    2. Carolyn Heinrich & Mónica Hernández & Mason Shero, 2023. "Repercussions of a Raid: Health and Education Outcomes of Children Entangled in Immigration Enforcement," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(2), pages 350-392, March.
    3. Desmond Ang, 2021. "The Effects of Police Violence on Inner-City Students," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(1), pages 115-168.
    4. Federico Masera, 2022. "The economics of policing and crimeThe economics of policing and crime," Chapters, in: Paolo Buonanno & Paolo Vanin & Juan Vargas (ed.), A Modern Guide to the Economics of Crime, chapter 2, pages 12-29, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Civic unrest; Ferguson; human capital; natural experiment; externalities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General

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