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School Desegregation and Urban Change: Evidence from City Boundaries

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  • Leah Platt Boustan

Abstract

I examine changes in the city-suburban housing price gap in metropolitan areas with and without court-ordered desegregation plans over the 1970s, narrowing my comparison to housing units on opposite sides of district boundaries. The desegregation of public schools in central cities reduced the demand for urban residence, leading urban housing prices and rents to decline by six percent relative to neighboring suburbs. The aversion to integration was due both to changes in peer composition and to student reassignment to non-neighborhood schools. The associated reduction in the urban tax base imposed a fiscal externality on remaining urban residents.

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  • Leah Platt Boustan, 2010. "School Desegregation and Urban Change: Evidence from City Boundaries," NBER Working Papers 16434, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16434
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    10. Nathaniel Baum-Snow, 2007. "Did Highways Cause Suburbanization?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(2), pages 775-805.
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    Cited by:

    1. Monica Langella & Alan Manning, 2019. "Diversity and Neighbourhood Satisfaction," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(624), pages 3219-3255.
    2. Battaglia, Marianna & Chabé-Ferret, Bastien & Lebedinski, Lara, 2017. "Segregation and Fertility: The Case of the Roma in Serbia," IZA Discussion Papers 10929, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Dionissi Aliprantis & Daniel R. Carroll, 2018. "Neighborhood dynamics and the distribution of opportunity," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 9(1), pages 247-303, March.
    4. Ranjan, Priya & Neumark, David & Rodriguez-Lopez, Antonio, 2022. "What's across the Border? Re-Evaluating the Cross-Border Evidence on Minimum Wage Effects," IZA Discussion Papers 15282, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Elizabeth U. Cascio & Ethan G. Lewis, 2012. "Cracks in the Melting Pot: Immigration, School Choice, and Segregation," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 4(3), pages 91-117, August.
    6. Marianna BATTAGLIA & Bastien CHABÉ-FERRET & Lara LEBEDINSKI, 2021. "Segregation, fertility, and son preference: the case of the Roma in Serbia," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 87(2), pages 233-260, June.
    7. Caetano, Gregorio & Maheshri, Vikram, 2019. "Gender segregation within neighborhoods," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 253-263.
    8. Owen Thompson, 2022. "School Desegregation and Black Teacher Employment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(5), pages 962-980, December.
    9. David A. Weiner & Byron F. Lutz & Jens Ludwig, 2009. "The Effects of School Desegregation on Crime," NBER Working Papers 15380, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Peter Hinrichs, 2024. "An Empirical Analysis of Racial Segregation in Higher Education," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 19(2), pages 218-251, Spring.
    11. Leah Platt Boustan & Robert A. Margo & Matthew M. Miller & James M. Reeves & Justin P. Steil, 2019. "Does Condominium Development Lead to Gentrification?," NBER Working Papers 26170, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Mahajan, Avichal, 2024. "Highways and segregation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    13. Atila Abdulkadiroğlu & Joshua Angrist & Parag Pathak, 2014. "The Elite Illusion: Achievement Effects at Boston and New York Exam Schools," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(1), pages 137-196, January.
    14. Boustan, Leah Platt, 2013. "Local public goods and the demand for high-income municipalities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 71-82.
    15. Keren Mertens Horn, 2017. "School Accountability and Residential Location Patterns: Evaluating the Unintended Consequences of No Child Left Behind," Working Papers 17-28, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    16. Tabellini, Marco, 2020. "Racial Heterogeneity and Local Government Finances: Evidence from the Great Migration," CEPR Discussion Papers 14319, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Leah Platt Boustan, 2013. "Racial Residential Segregation in American Cities," NBER Working Papers 19045, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Caetano, Gregorio & Maheshri, Vikram, 2017. "School segregation and the identification of tipping behavior," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 115-135.
    19. Umut M. Dur & Scott Duke Kominers & Parag A. Pathak & Tayfun Sönmez, 2013. "The Demise of Walk Zones in Boston: Priorities vs. Precedence in School Choice," NBER Working Papers 18981, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Leah Platt Boustan, 2007. "Escape from the City? The Role of Race, Income, and Local Public Goods in Post-War Suburbanization," NBER Working Papers 13311, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Boustan, Leah & Margo, Robert A. & Miller, Matthew M. & Reeves, James & Steil, Justin, 2023. "JUE Insight: Condominium development does not lead to gentrification," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    22. Xiaozhou Ding & Christopher Bollinger & Michael Clark & William Hoyt & William H. Hoyt, 2023. "Estimation of Welfare Effects in Hedonic Difference-in-Differences: The Case in School Redistricting," CESifo Working Paper Series 10670, CESifo.
    23. Caetano, Gregorio & Maheshri, Vikram, 2017. "School segregation and the identification of tipping behavior," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 115-135.
    24. Brunner, Eric J. & Johnson, Erik B., 2016. "Intergenerational conflict and the political economy of higher education funding," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 73-87.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • N92 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • R21 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Housing Demand

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