Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

Working Papers,
Lund University, Department of Economics

No 2024:3: School Density and Inequality in Student Achievement

Jorge De la Roca () and Petra Thiemann ()
Additional contact information
Jorge De la Roca: University of Southern California, Postal: Sol Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California, 650 Childs Way RGL 326, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
Petra Thiemann: Department of Economics, Lund University, Postal: School of Economics and Management, Box 7080, S-220 07 Lund, Sweden

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.

Keywords: assortative matching; inequality; residential sorting; school quality

JEL-codes: I24; J15; J24; R12

Language: English

32 pages, June 7, 2024

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