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Racial Segregation and the Black-White Test Score Gap

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Author Info
David Card (University of California Berkeley and NBER)
Jesse Rothstein (Princeton University and NBER)

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Abstract

Racial segregation is often blamed for part of the achievement gap between blacks and whites. In this paper we study the effects of school and neighborhood segregation on the relative SAT scores of black students across different metropolitan areas, using large microdata samples for the 1998-2001 test cohorts. Without controlling for neighborhood segregation, we find that school segregation is negatively associated with black relative test scores, and also with relative education and employment outcomes measured in the 2000 Census. In models that include both school and neighborhood segregation, however, the effect of relative exposure to black schoolmates is uniformly small and statistically insignificant, while neighborhood segregation has a strong negative effect. Instrumental variables estimates that isolate the components of school segregation associated with court-ordered desegregation plans or the geographic features of a city are consistent with this result but imprecise. Models that include school segregation, neighborhood segregation, and measures of the relative exposure of blacks to other characteristics of their neighbors (e.g., education and income) show weaker effects of neighborhood segregation, suggesting that the socio-economic status of neighbors, rather than their race, may be the primary source of these effects.

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Paper provided by Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies. in its series Working Papers with number 93.

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Date of creation: May 2005
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Handle: RePEc:pri:cepsud:93

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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    Other versions:
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  11. Jonathan Guryan, 2001. "Desegregation and Black Dropout Rates," NBER Working Papers 8345, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Jesse M. Rothstein, 2006. "Good Principals or Good Peers? Parental Valuation of School Characteristics, Tiebout Equilibrium, and the Incentive Effects of Competition among Jurisdictions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(4), pages 1333-1350, September. [Downloadable!]
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. David Frankel & Oscar Volij, 2005. "Scale-Invariant Measures of Segregation," Economic theory and game theory 018, Oscar Volij. [Downloadable!]
  2. Eleonora Patacchini & Yves Zenou, 2006. "Racial Identity and Education," IZA Discussion Papers 2046, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Guyonne Kalb & Sholeh A. Maani, 2007. "The Importance of Observing Early School Leaving and Usually Unobserved Background and Peer Characteristics in Analysing Academic Performance," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2007n05, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne. [Downloadable!]
  4. David Card, 2007. "How Immigration Affects U.S. Cities," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 0711, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London. [Downloadable!]
  5. Jane Friesen & Brian Krauth, 2004. "Sorting and inequality in Canadian schools," HEW 0408001, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Giorgio Topa & Stephen Ross & Patrick Bayer, 2005. "Place of Work and Place of Residence: Informal Hiring Networks and Labor Market Outcomes," Working Papers 05-23, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Eric Brunner & Jennifer Imazeki & Stephen L. Ross, 2006. "Universal Vouchers and Racial Segregation," Working papers 2006-01, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2008. [Downloadable!]
  8. Leah Platt Boustan & Robert A. Margo, 2007. "Race, Segregation, and Postal Employment: New Evidence on Spatial Mismatch," NBER Working Papers 13462, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Jacob L. Vigdor, 2006. "The New Promised Land: Black-White Convergence in the American South, 1960-2000," NBER Working Papers 12143, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. David Frankel & Oscar Volij, 2005. "Measuring Segregation," Economic theory and game theory 017, Oscar Volij. [Downloadable!]
  11. Roland G. Fryer, Jr. & Paul Torelli, 2005. "An Empirical Analysis of 'Acting White'," NBER Working Papers 11334, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Byron F. Lutz, 2005. "Post Brown vs. the Board of Education: the effects of the end of court-ordered desegregation," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2005-64, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  13. Patrick Bayer & Stephen L. Ross, 2006. "Identifying Individual and Group Effects in the Presence of Sorting: A Neighborhood Effects Application," Working papers 2006-13, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  14. Robert Bifulco & Jason Fletcher & Stephen Ross, 2008. "The Effect of Classmate Characteristics on Individual Outcomes: Evidence from the Add Health," Working papers 2008-21, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  15. Elizabeth Oltmans Ananat, 2007. "The Wrong Side(s) of the Tracks Estimating the Causal Effects of Racial Segregation on City Outcomes," NBER Working Papers 13343, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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