Preference heterogeneity and school segregation

Hessel Oosterbeek; Sándor Sóvágó; Bas van der Klaauw

doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104400

Preference heterogeneity and school segregation

Hessel Oosterbeek^*
, Sándor Sóvágó
, Bas van der Klaauw

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

This paper examines heterogeneity of school preferences between ethnic and social groups and quantifies the importance of this heterogeneity for school segregation. We use rich data from the secondary-school match in Amsterdam. Our key findings are that heterogeneity of preferences for schools is substantial and that 40% of school segregation by ethnicity and close to 25% of school segregation by household income, can be attributed to it. Ability tracking is the other main determinant of school segregation. Results from policy simulations indicate that minority quotas reduce segregation within ability tracks considerably, but this comes at the cost of many students receiving less-preferred assignments and a higher share of unassigned students.

Original language	English
Article number	104400
Pages (from-to)	1-26
Number of pages	26
Journal	Journal of Public Economics
Volume	197
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104400
Publication status	Published - May 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
A previous version of this paper circulated under the title “Why are schools segregated? Evidence from the secondary-school match in Amsterdam”. We gratefully acknowledge valuable comments from the editor (Christopher Walters), two anonymous referees, John Friedman, Mikael Lindahl, Magne Mogstad, Steve Rivkin, Dinand Webbink and seminar and workshop participants in Amsterdam, Bonn, Budapest, Groningen, Mannheim, Munich, Naples, San Diego, Stanford, The Hague and Uppsala. The non-public micro data used in this paper are available via remote access to the Microdata services of Statistics Netherlands. Oosterbeek received support from the Research Council of Norway Toppforsk grant no. 275906. Van der Klaauw acknowledges financial support from a Vici-grant from the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)

Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Funding

A previous version of this paper circulated under the title “Why are schools segregated? Evidence from the secondary-school match in Amsterdam”. We gratefully acknowledge valuable comments from the editor (Christopher Walters), two anonymous referees, John Friedman, Mikael Lindahl, Magne Mogstad, Steve Rivkin, Dinand Webbink and seminar and workshop participants in Amsterdam, Bonn, Budapest, Groningen, Mannheim, Munich, Naples, San Diego, Stanford, The Hague and Uppsala. The non-public micro data used in this paper are available via remote access to the Microdata services of Statistics Netherlands. Oosterbeek received support from the Research Council of Norway Toppforsk grant no. 275906. Van der Klaauw acknowledges financial support from a Vici-grant from the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO).

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities

Keywords

I21
I24
I28

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10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104400

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title = "Preference heterogeneity and school segregation",

abstract = "This paper examines heterogeneity of school preferences between ethnic and social groups and quantifies the importance of this heterogeneity for school segregation. We use rich data from the secondary-school match in Amsterdam. Our key findings are that heterogeneity of preferences for schools is substantial and that 40\% of school segregation by ethnicity and close to 25\% of school segregation by household income, can be attributed to it. Ability tracking is the other main determinant of school segregation. Results from policy simulations indicate that minority quotas reduce segregation within ability tracks considerably, but this comes at the cost of many students receiving less-preferred assignments and a higher share of unassigned students.",

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AB - This paper examines heterogeneity of school preferences between ethnic and social groups and quantifies the importance of this heterogeneity for school segregation. We use rich data from the secondary-school match in Amsterdam. Our key findings are that heterogeneity of preferences for schools is substantial and that 40% of school segregation by ethnicity and close to 25% of school segregation by household income, can be attributed to it. Ability tracking is the other main determinant of school segregation. Results from policy simulations indicate that minority quotas reduce segregation within ability tracks considerably, but this comes at the cost of many students receiving less-preferred assignments and a higher share of unassigned students.

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ER -

Preference heterogeneity and school segregation

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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