Full Citation

Title: The Impact of Early Investments in Urban School Systems in the United States

Citation Type: Working Paper

Publication Year: 2019

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI: 10.3386/w25663

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Abstract: Cities in the United States dramatically expanded spending on public education in the years following World War I, with the average urban school district increasing per pupil expenditures by over 70 percent between 1916 and 1924. We provide the first evaluation of these historically unprecedented investments in public education by compiling a new dataset that links individuals to both the quality of the city school district they attended as a child and their adult outcomes. Using plausibly exogenous growth in school spending generated by anti-German sentiment, we find that school resources significantly increased educational attainment and wages later in life, particularly for the children of unskilled workers. Increases in expenditures can explain about 50 percent of the sizable increase in educational attainment of cohorts born between 1895 and 1915. However, increased spending did not close the gap in educational attainment between the children of skilled and unskilled workers, which remained constant over the period

Url: https://www.nber.org/papers/w25663

Url: http://www.nber.org/papers/w25663.pdf

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Authors: Schmick, Ethan; Shertzer, Allison

Series Title: NBER Working Paper

Publication Number: 25663

Institution: National Bureau of Economic Research

Pages: 1-57

Publisher Location: Cambridge, MA

Data Collections: IPUMS USA - Ancestry Full Count Data

Topics: Education, Land Use/Urban Organization

Countries: United States