Measuring school segregation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Frankel, David M.; Volij, Oscar
• 署名单位: Iowa State University; Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2010.10.008
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 1-38
• 关键词: segregation; Indices; Axiomatic method; measurement; schools; education

摘要

Using only ordinal axioms, we characterize several multigroup school segregation indices: the Atkinson indices for the class of school districts with a given fixed number of ethnic groups and the Mutual Information index for the class of all districts. Properties of other school segregation indices are also discussed. In an empirical application, we document a weakening of the effect of ethnicity on school assignment from 1987/1988 to 2007/2008. We also show that segregation between districts within cities currently accounts for 33% of total segregation. Segregation between states, driven mainly by the distinct residential patterns of Hispanics, contributes another 32%. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.