Project Abstract/Summary
This award funds an innovative research into how location affects long-term outcomes of young adults in the U.S. We do not yet have a clear understanding of why location has such significant impacts on later-life outcomes. This project combines several large data sets from a large state to measure how elementary and secondary school resources affect the acquisition of cognitive and noncognitive skills measured by school attendance, receipt of disciplinary infractions or out-of-school suspensions, and test scores. The researchers then investigate the relationships between school effects on skill development and future outcomes including labor market engagement, post-secondary schooling, and contacts with the criminal justice system. This research helps to clarify the role that schools play in contributing to the link between place of birth and adult outcomes. Moreover, by identifying those schools that have the most beneficial impacts on outcomes in adulthood, this research can illuminate educational practices that appear be highly effective. The results of this research will inform human capital investment policies at the local, state, and federal levels, hence increase economic growth, and improve living standards.
To assess whether previously documented correlations between school quality measures and local intergenerational mobility reflect the causal contributions of schools to economic and social mobility, this research takes advantage of unique administrative data on schooling, earnings, and involvement in the criminal justice system for a large state that spans over twenty years and permit the researchers to track students from elementary school through adulthood. The analysis uses several complementary research designs that have been used in the estimation of teacher, principal, school, and place effects, including approaches that take advantage of teacher and student movements across schools. Each methodology addresses distinct potential biases, including the potentially confounding influences of neighborhood factors or time-varying family shocks. In combination with extensive placebo testing and sensitivity analysis, the estimates will provide rigorous new information on the structure of school effects and their variability across time and place. Moreover, estimation of the contributions of differences in teacher and principal effectiveness will paint a rich picture of the channels through which schools affect economic and social mobility. The research results will inform human capital investment policies at the local, state, and federal levels, hence increase economic growth, and improve living standards.
This award reflects NSF’s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation’s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
Principal Investigator
Benjamin Feigenberg – University of Illinois at Chicago located in CHICAGO, IL
Co-Principal Investigators
Steven Rivkin
Funders
Funding Amount
$349,640.00
Project Start Date
09/01/2023
Project End Date
08/31/2026
Will the project remain active for the next two years?
The project has more than two years remaining
Source: National Science Foundation
Please be advised that recent changes in federal funding schemes may have impacted the project’s scope and status.
Updated: April, 2025