Schools as places of crime? Evidence from closing chronically underperforming schools

Matthew P. Steinberg, Benjamin Ukert and John M. MacDonald

Regional Science and Urban Economics, 2019, vol. 77, issue C, 125-140

Abstract: We leverage the closing of chronically underperforming public schools in Philadelphia to estimate their impact on neighborhood crime. Employing a difference-in-differences strategy comparing monthly crime in blocks where school buildings closed to blocks where schools remained open or were never located, we find significant and substantive declines in crime following school closure. The decline in crime is driven by reductions in violent crime, is concentrated in blocks where high schools closed, during weekday hours when schools would have been in session, and is greatest in the blocks where more students exited following closures. While crime increased in blocks that enrolled a larger share of students displaced due to closures, the displacement of crime was significantly smaller in magnitude than the total crime reduction. These results suggest that closing schools with high rates of student misconduct and low educational performance led to a net reduction in crime in Philadelphia.

Keywords: School closings; Urban school reform; Neighborhood crime; Spillovers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 I21 I28 R10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:regeco:v:77:y:2019:i:c:p:125-140

DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2019.04.001

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