Full Citation
Title: Education Returns in Developing Economies: The Case of Turn of the Century Tennessee
Citation Type: Conference Paper
Publication Year: 2014
ISBN:
ISSN:
DOI: 10.1017/S0022050714000539
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Abstract: In this paper, I will use finely detailed archival records from high schools in early twentieth-century Tennessee to explore returns to education during the ascent of the high school movement. With these newly compiled data, I can observe both the diffusion of new high schools and the “quality” of schools using information on teacher qualifications, teacher workload, and school amenities. This, in turn, can provide a more informative picture of how variation in schooling opportunities and resources translated into differences in school attendance (when young) and labor market outcomes (when adult). The labor market outcomes will be obtained by linking the school quality measures to local boys, ages 4–18, in the 1920 IPUMS 1 percent census sample. This sample can be linked to the 1940 census manuscripts to observe adult earnings and final educational attainment for this cohort. This data will allow me to analyze the high school movement’s effect on labor markets, considering both returns to quality and promotion rates as an indicator of quality on learning. Multinomial choice models will let me measure high school quality’s impact on career paths (e.g., college, business, normal school, etc.). An important challenge is that school location and quality may be endogenous. I am developing an instrumental variable approach that draws on the ability, granted by the state legislature, of some “special school districts” to levy taxes on railroads. Although I am still exploring the instrument’s validity, historical sources indicate that districts near railroads commonly used this special status to improve local schools.
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Authors: Moody, Michael
Conference Name: EHA Annual Meeting
Publisher Location:
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Education
Countries: United States