Public Education Inequality and Intergenerational Mobility

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Zheng, Angela; Graham, James
• 署名单位: McMaster University; University of Sydney
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MACROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7707
• DOI: 10.1257/mac.20180466
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 250-282
• 关键词: income-distribution; investments; valuation; schools; matter

摘要

Public school funding depends heavily on local property tax reve-nue. Consequently, low-income households have limited access to quality education in neighborhoods with high house prices. In a dynamic life-cycle model with neighborhood choice and endogenous local school quality, we show that this property tax funding mecha-nism reduces intergenerational mobility and accounts for the spatial correlation between house prices and mobility. A housing voucher experiment improves access to schools, with benefits that can last for multiple generations. Additionally, a policy that redistributes property tax revenues equally across schools improves mobility and welfare. However, the benefits can take generations to be realized.