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School Density and Inequality in Student Achievement

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Abstract

In the US, test score gaps by socioeconomic status and race increase with city size. This paper examines to what extent residential sorting on school quality can explain this fact. We combine 15 years of data on public elementary school students in North Carolina with geocoded school locations and proxy city size with a measure of school density in a local labor market. Assortative matching between student advantage and school quality markedly increases with city size, accounting for 10% of the city-size gradient in test score inequality. Assortativeness is strongest in the high-income neighborhoods of large cities.

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  • De la Roca, Jorge & Thiemann, Petra, 2024. "School Density and Inequality in Student Achievement," Working Papers 2024:3, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2024_003
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    assortative matching; inequality; residential sorting; school quality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

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