Homeownership and Students’ Achievement in Public Schools in the U.S. State of Georgia

Abstract

ABSTRACT We investigate the impact of neighborhood homeownership rates on students’ achievement in public schools in the U.S. state of Georgia. Homeownership and students’ achievement are likely to be endogenously determined at the neighborhood level. We correct for this endogeneity concern using population growth as the instrument for the neighborhood homeownership rate. The findings suggest that a 1-percentage-point increase in homeownership rate at the census tract level increased the percentage of proficient learners and above in third-grade reading by 0.24 percentage points, and the effects are stronger—economically and statistically—in estimates that correct for the endogeneity of neighborhood homeownership rates. Further, the effects of homeownership are much larger in the sample of low-income, less affluent, or more black or African American-dominated neighborhoods, compared with the overall sample.