American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
School Quality and the Gender Gap in Educational Achievement
American Economic Review
vol. 106,
no. 5, May 2016
(pp. 289–95)
Abstract
Recent evidence indicates that boys and girls are differently affected by the quantity and quality of family inputs received in childhood. We assess whether this is also true for schooling inputs. Using matched Florida birth and school administrative records, we estimate the causal effect of school quality on the gender gap in educational outcomes by contrasting opposite-sex siblings who attend the same sets of schools--thereby purging family heterogeneity--and leveraging within-family variation in school quality arising from family moves. Investigating middle school test scores, absences and suspensions, we find that boys benefit more than girls from cumulative exposure to higher quality schools.Citation
Autor, David, David Figlio, Krzysztof Karbownik, Jeffrey Roth, and Melanie Wasserman. 2016. "School Quality and the Gender Gap in Educational Achievement." American Economic Review, 106 (5): 289–95. DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20161074Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I21 Analysis of Education
- I24 Education and Inequality
- J12 Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination