School Attendance Boundaries and the Segregation of Public Schools in the United States
中文摘要
学校隔离既取决于居住分异，也取决于入学边界划定和学校选址等地方政策。本文通过计算使学生入学距离最小化的学校分配方案，并评估实际分配是否因种族而存在系统性差异，提出了一种理解上述因素相对重要性的方法。利用近1,600个学区的人口普查数据和入学边界地图，我发现，与距离最小化基准相比，入学边界使融合程度提高了5%，而学校选址几乎不起任何作用。仅居住隔离一项就能解释美国学校隔离的100%以上。（JEL H75、I21、I28、J15、R23）
Abstract
School segregation is determined both by residential sorting and local policies, such as the drawing of attendance boundaries and school siting. This paper develops an approach to understanding the relative importance of these factors by calculating the distance-minimizing assignment of students to schools and assessing whether actual assignments differ systematically by race. Using census data and attendance boundary maps for nearly 1,600 school districts, I find that attendance boundaries create 5 percent more integration than a distance-minimizing baseline, while school siting plays almost no role. Residential segregation alone explains more than 100 percent of school segregation in the United States. (JEL H75, I21, I28, J15, R23)