Working Papers
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Using linked records from the 1880 to 1940 full-count United States decennial censuses, we estimate the effects of parental exposure to compulsory schooling laws on the human capital outcomes of their children, exploiting the staggered roll-out of state compulsory schooling (CS) laws in the second half of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. Parental exposure to CS not only increased the educational attainment of parents, but also that of their children. The magnitudes of these effects are similar, suggesting much stronger intergenerational transmission of human capital than found in other settings. We find particularly large effects of parental CS exposure for black families, as well as for first-born sons. Exploring mechanisms of intergenerational transmission, we find evidence that higher parental CS exposure could have affected child outcomes through higher parental labor-market earnings, marriage to more educated spouses, and a greater propensity to reside in neighborhoods with greater school resources (teacher to student ratios) and higher average educational levels.
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This study examines the impact of school choice on the academic achievement of Romanian high school students, who compete for seats via national exams. I exploit variation in school choice engendered by differences in the number of schools across similar-sized towns. I find that more school choice leads to higher levels of student sorting by admission scores across schools. Sorting widens achievement gaps between high- and low-admission score students. High-scorers having access to better teachers and peer effects are the primary factors explaining these widening gaps. Lastly, between-school competition via school choice does not increase average achievement levels.
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In progress...
- The Equilibrium Implications of Identity Choice: Education, Passing, and Perceptions of the Roma People - with Margareta Matache, Gabriel Kreindler, Andreea Mitrut and Cristian Pop-Eleches
- The Effects of Attending a Higher Value-added High School - with Robert Ainsworth, Rajeev Dehejia, Cristian Pop-Eleches and Miguel Urquiola
- Survival of the Fittest? School Closures and Expansions in a Centralized Choice System - with Robert Ainsworth, Rajeev Dehejia, Cristian Pop-Eleches and Miguel Urquiola
- The Determinants of Ability Tracking and Its Effects - with Ofer Malamud, Andreea Mitrut, Cristian Pop-Eleches and Miguel Urquiola
- The Unintended Consequences of Shorter Curriculum Length - with Xian Zhang
Publications
- Scholtz, Christa, and Andrei Munteanu. "How cooperative is “cooperative federalism”? The political limits to intergovernmental cooperation under a de facto concurrency rule." Constitutional Political Economy 34.1 (2023): 111-134.
