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  3. American Economic Review: Insights
  4. September 2021
  5. The Long-Run Effects of School Racial Diversity on Political Identity

The Long-Run Effects of School Racial Diversity on Political Identity

  • Stephen B. Billings
  • Eric Chyn
  • Kareem Haggag
American Economic Review: Insights
vol. 3, no. 3, September 2021
(pp. 267-84)
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Abstract

How do early-life experiences shape political identity? We examine the end of race-based busing in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, an event that led to large changes in school racial composition. Using administrative data, we compare party affiliation in adulthood for students who had lived on opposite sides of newly drawn school boundaries. Consistent with the contact hypothesis, we find that a 10 percentage point increase in the share of minorities in a White student's assigned school decreased their likelihood of registering as a Republican by 2 percentage points (12 percent). Our results suggest that schools in childhood play an important role in shaping partisanship.

Citation

Billings, Stephen B., Eric Chyn, and Kareem Haggag. 2021. "The Long-Run Effects of School Racial Diversity on Political Identity." American Economic Review: Insights, 3 (3): 267-84. DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20200336

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
  • H75 State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions
  • I21 Analysis of Education
  • I28 Education: Government Policy
  • J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination