Abstract
Schelling and Sakoda prominently proposed computational models suggesting that strong ethnic residential segregation can be the unintended outcome of a self-reinforcing dynamic driven by choices of individuals with rather tolerant ethnic preferences. There are only few attempts to apply this view to school choice, another important arena in which ethnic segregation occurs. In the current paper, we explore with an agent-based theoretical model similar to those proposed for residential segregation, how ethnic tolerance among parents can affect the level of school segregation. More specifically, we ask whether and under which conditions school segregation could be reduced if more parents hold tolerant ethnic preferences. We move beyond earlier models of school segregation in three ways. First, we model individual school choices using a random utility discrete choice approach. Second, we vary the pattern of ethnic segregation in the residential context of school choices systematically, comparing residential maps in which segregation is unrelated to parents' level of tolerance to residential maps reflecting their ethnic preferences. Third, we introduce heterogeneity in tolerance levels among parents belonging to the same group. Our simulation experiments suggest that ethnic school segregation can be a very robust phenomenon, occurring even when about half of the population prefers segregated to mixed schools. However, we also identify a sweet spot in the parameter space in which a larger proportion of tolerant parents makes the biggest difference. This is the case when parents have moderate preferences for nearby schools and there is only little residential segregation. Further experimentation unraveled the underlying mechanisms.
Highlights
We addressed the question whether and how a large fraction of tolerant parents could reduce school segregation
We developed a new model of school choice that allowed to assess the potential for selfreinforcing preference dynamics in school segregation similar to those identified by the Schelling-Sakoda model of residential segregation
When all parents have a rather strong preference for nearby schools, do tolerant parents significantly reduce school segregation, through the emergence of mixed schools, a result which is consistent with empirical research (Böhlmark et al )
Summary
. School segregation is a threat to integration in multicultural societies. The clustering of di erent ethnicities in di erent schools is a persistent phenomenon in many countries (Bakker et al ). It contributes to the widening of educational, occupational, and earnings inequalities between ethnic groups (Ashenfelter et al ; Johnson ; Reardon & Owens ). Schools have a key role to play in forming young generations’ attitudes toward diversity. Early positive inter-ethnic contacts are crucial to form the attitudes generations of citizens’ will hold on diversity. School segregation strongly limits opportunities for inter-ethnic contacts in the first place
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