IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/inq/inqwps/ecineq2020-543.html

Spatial divisions of poverty and wealth: How much does segregation matter for educational achievement?

Author

Listed:
  • Rafael Carranza

    (London School of Economics)

  • Gabriel Otero

    (Utrecht University)

  • Dante Contreras

    (Universidad de Chile)

Abstract

We explore how different spatial compositions affect the educational achievement in mathematics of 16 year-old students in Chile, a Latin American country with high income inequality and school segregation. We develop a critical review on the literature on negative "neighbourhood effects" associated with concentrated poverty, complementing it with studies concerning self-segregation preferences by members of the upper-middle class. We combine administrative data about student performance with survey data for the 52 municipalities of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile. We cluster the districts based on factors such as unemployment, economic inequality, access to services, experiences of violence and stigmatization. Using longitudinal data, we look at the effect of each of the six spatial clusters on academic performance. Spatial clusters report a significant effect, above and beyond that of individual, household, and school-level characteristics. We conclude that space complements and reinforces the processes of accumulation of socioeconomic (dis)advantages.

Suggested Citation

  • Rafael Carranza & Gabriel Otero & Dante Contreras, 2020. "Spatial divisions of poverty and wealth: How much does segregation matter for educational achievement?," Working Papers 543, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    • Handle: RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2020-543
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ecineq.org/milano/WP/ECINEQ2020-543.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tom Slater, 2013. "Your Life Chances Affect Where You Live: A Critique of the ‘Cottage Industry’ of Neighbourhood Effects Research," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 367-387, March.
    2. Dante Contreras & Paulina Sepúlveda & Sebastián Bustos, 2010. "When Schools Are the Ones that Choose: The Effects of Screening in Chile," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 91(s1), pages 1349-1368.
    3. Seth D. Zimmerman, 2019. "Elite Colleges and Upward Mobility to Top Jobs and Top Incomes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(1), pages 1-47, January.
    4. Javier Nunez & Andrea Tartakowsky, 2011. "The relationship between income inequality and inequality of opportunities in a high-inequality country: the case of Chile," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 359-369.
    5. Ian Gordon & Vassilis Monastiriotis, 2006. "Urban Size, Spatial Segregation and Inequality in Educational Outcomes," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(1), pages 213-236, January.
    6. Gabriel Otero & Rafael Carranza & Dante Contreras, 2017. "‘Neighbourhood effects’ on children's educational achievement in Chile: The effects of inequality and polarization," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(11), pages 2595-2618, November.
    7. Douglas Massey, 1996. "The age of extremes: Concentrated affluence and poverty in the twenty-first century," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 33(4), pages 395-412, November.
    8. Ashenfelter, Orley & Card, David, 1985. "Using the Longitudinal Structure of Earnings to Estimate the Effect of Training Programs," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(4), pages 648-660, November.
    9. Monique Pinçon†Charlot & Michel Pinçon, 2018. "Social Power and Power Over Space: How the Bourgeoisie Reproduces itself in the City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(1), pages 115-125, January.
    10. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769, December.
    11. Tim Butler & Chris Hamnett, 2007. "The Geography of Education: Introduction," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(7), pages 1161-1174, June.
    12. Chen, Siyu & Guo, Chongshan & Huang, Xinfei, 2018. "Air Pollution, Student Health, and School Absences: Evidence from China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 465-497.
    13. -, 2016. "CEPAL Review no. 119," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), August.
    14. Dante Contreras & Paulina Sepúlveda & Sebastián Bustos, 2010. "When Schools Are the Ones that Choose: The Effects of Screening in Chile," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1349-1368, December.
    15. Thomas Maloutas & Maro Pantelidou Malouta, 2004. "The glass menagerie of urban governance and social cohesion: concepts and stakes/concepts as stakes," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 449-465, June.
    16. Heather Rose & Julian R. Betts, 2004. "The Effect of High School Courses on Earnings," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(2), pages 497-513, May.
    17. Elacqua, Gregory & Santos, Humberto, 2016. "Socioeconomic school segregation in Chile: parental choice and a theoretical counterfactual analysis," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Contreras, Dante & Rodríguez, Jorge & Urzúa, Sergio, 2024. "Is private education worth it? Evidence from school-to-work transitions in Chile," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Ceron, Francisco I. & Bol, Thijs & van de Werfhorst, Herman G., 2022. "The dynamics of achievement inequality: The role of performance and choice in Chile," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    3. Bonilla-Mejía, Leonardo & Galvis-Aponte, Luis Armando, 2014. "Profesionalización docente y calidad de la educación escolar en Colombia," Chapters, in: Sánchez Jabba, Andrés & Otero Cortés, Andrea (ed.), Educación y desarrollo regional en Colombia, chapter 5, pages 161-209, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    4. Elacqua, Gregory & Santos, Humberto, 2016. "Socioeconomic school segregation in Chile: parental choice and a theoretical counterfactual analysis," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), August.
    5. Hicham El Ouazzani & Hicham Ouakil & Abdelhamid Moustabchir & Augustin Foster Chabossou, 2025. "Economic impact of the african continental free trade area: a combined propensity score matching and difference-in-differences approach to regional integration in Africa," International Journal of Economic Policy Studies, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 377-399, August.
    6. Jason Poulos & Andrea Albanese & Andrea Mercatanti & Fan Li, 2021. "Retrospective causal inference via matrix completion, with an evaluation of the effect of European integration on cross-border employment," Papers 2106.00788, arXiv.org.
    7. Wu, Jianxin & Zhan, Xiaoling & Xu, Hui & Ma, Chunbo, 2023. "The economic impacts of COVID-19 and city lockdown: Early evidence from China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 151-165.
    8. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Nitsch, Volker & Wendland, Nicolai, 2019. "Ease vs. noise: Long-run changes in the value of transport (dis)amenities," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    9. Peter Hull & Michal Kolesár & Christopher Walters, 2022. "Labor by design: contributions of David Card, Joshua Angrist, and Guido Imbens," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(3), pages 603-645, July.
    10. Contreras, David & Sanchez, Rafael, 2018. "Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Effects of Nursery Care in the Medium Run under Unobserved Heterogeneity," MPRA Paper 86289, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Andreas Wettlaufer & Andreas Farwick, 2025. "Primary school segregation in the context of free primary school choice – More than just a reflection of residential segregation?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 62(6), pages 1039-1061, May.
    12. Mahdi Gholami & Samuel Muehlemann, 2024. "Pathways to Prosperity: The Roles of Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills in Employer Quality and Early Career Earnings," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0212, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW), revised Dec 2024.
    13. Dante Contreras & Jorge Rodríguez & Sergio Urzúa, 2019. "The Return to Private Education: Evidence from School-to-Work Transitions," Working Papers wp479, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    14. Marlon R. Tracey & Chanita C. Holmes & Marvin G. Powell, 2024. "Parental limit-setting decisions and adolescent subject grades," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 143-171, March.
    15. Marco D. Huesch & Truls Østbye & Michael K. Ong, 2012. "Measuring The Effect Of Policy Interventions At The Population Level: Some Methodological Concerns," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(10), pages 1234-1249, October.
    16. Bertocchi, Graziella & Bonacini, Luca & Joxhe, Majlinda & Pignataro, Giuseppe, 2025. "Math Exposure and University Performance: Causal Evidence from Twins," CEPR Discussion Papers 19975, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    17. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2010. "The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design Is Taking the Con out of Econometrics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 3-30, Spring.
    18. Contreras, Dante & Elacqua, Gregory & Martinez, Matías & Miranda, Álvaro, 2016. "Bullying, identity and school performance: Evidence from Chile," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 147-162.
    19. Chao Fu & Nicolás Grau & Jorge Rivera, 2022. "Wandering astray: Teenagers' choices of schooling and crime," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(2), pages 387-424, May.
    20. Joeke Kuyvenhoven & Willem R. Boterman, 2021. "Neighbourhood and school effects on educational inequalities in the transition from primary to secondary education in Amsterdam," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(13), pages 2660-2682, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2020-543. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Maria Ana Lugo The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Maria Ana Lugo to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ecineea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.