Short-Run Externalities of Civic Unrest: Evidence from Ferguson, Missouri

Seth Gershenson and Michael S. Hayes ()
Additional contact information
Michael S. Hayes: Rutgers University

No 10091, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We document externalities of the civic unrest experienced in Ferguson, MO following the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager. Difference-in-differences and synthetic control method estimates compare Ferguson-area schools to neighboring schools in the greater St. Louis area and find that the unrest led to statistically significant, arguably causal declines in students' math and reading achievement. Attendance is one mechanism through which this effect operated, as chronic absence increased by five percent in Ferguson-area schools. Impacts were concentrated in elementary schools and at the bottom of the achievement distribution and spilled over into majority black schools throughout the area.

Keywords: natural experiment; achievement gaps; Ferguson; civic unrest; externalities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 R00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2016-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Geography, 2018, 18 (3), 663-685.

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp10091.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10091

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().