Estimating the Effect of School Quality on Mortality in the Presence of Migration: Evidence from the Jim Crow South
研究了20世纪初美国南方农村非裔美国人学校质量的提升对寿命的影响，发现完全暴露于罗森沃尔德学校使预期寿命增加2-3个月，但迁移行为会抵消部分健康收益。
How does school quality affect health amid multiple behavioral responses? The Rosenwald schools transformed school quality for rural southern African Americans in the early 1900s. Research shows that the schools made black migration northward more likely and that the Great Migration shortened life expectancy for these migrants. Besides the hypothesized health-enhancing effects of school quality, negative health effects might also occur through migration. We disentangle behavioral mechanisms and find complete exposure to the Rosenwald schools increased life expectancy by 2–3 months; a more naive approach finds no relationship. Results are robust to heterogeneous treatment effects and various measurement issues. © 2021 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.