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  3. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
  4. February 2024
  5. Attendance Boundary Policies and the Limits to Combating School Segregation

Attendance Boundary Policies and the Limits to Combating School Segregation

  • Andreas Bjerre-Nielsen
  • Mikkel Høst Gandil
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
vol. 16, no. 1, February 2024
(pp. 190-227)
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Abstract

What is the efficacy of redrawing school attendance boundaries as a desegregation policy? To provide causal evidence on this question, we employ novel data with unprecedented detail on the universe of Danish children and exploit changes in attendance boundaries over time. Households defy reassignments to schools with lower socioeconomic status. There is a strong social gradient in defiance, as resourceful households are more sensitive to the student composition of new schools. We simulate school assignment policies and find that boundary changes that reassign areas to a highly disadvantaged school are ineffective at altering the socioeconomic composition at the disadvantaged school.

Citation

Bjerre-Nielsen, Andreas, and Mikkel Høst Gandil. 2024. "Attendance Boundary Policies and the Limits to Combating School Segregation." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 16 (1): 190-227. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20200843

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • D31 Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
  • H75 State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions
  • I21 Analysis of Education
  • I24 Education and Inequality
  • I28 Education: Government Policy
  • R23 Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics
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