Public Financing and Racial Disparities: Does a Rising Tide Always Lift All Boats?
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy · 2025 · [{"name": "Qiu Tian", "affiliation": ["University of Alabama"]}]
中文摘要
本文研究地方政府支出对不同种族群体的异质性影响。支出的外生增加显著改善了白人的劳动力市场结果，如就业率、每周工作小时数和劳动收入，但对黑人或西班牙裔则没有显著改善。这些对成年人的效应会传导至其子女的学业表现：白人学生的考试成绩显著提高，而黑人或西班牙裔学生则没有。因此，地方政府支出增加后，学业成绩的种族差距扩大。这些结果凸显了一种可能性：地方政府支出的增加可能会出人意料地加剧代际种族不平等。（JEL H74, H75, I22, I26, J15, J22, J31）
Abstract
This paper studies the heterogeneous impact of local government spending across racial groups. An exogenous increase in spending results in significant improvement in White, but not Black or Hispanic, labor market outcomes such as employment rate, weekly hours worked, and labor income. These effects on adults translate into their children’s academic performance. White students show significant improvement in test scores, but Black or Hispanic students do not. Consequently, the achievement racial gap widens following an increase in local government spending. These results highlight the possibility that an increase in local government spending could unexpectedly increase intergenerational racial disparity. (JEL H74, H75, I22, I26, J15, J22, J31)