Essays in *education and inequality.

Abstract

This dissertation is a collection of three essays on the economics of education and the alleviation of poverty. Chapter 2 investigates the role of funding and quality in traditional public schools on the rate of home schooling in North Carolina between 1991 and 2003. Using a panel of 100 counties, a fixed effects model is estimated determining the effect on home schooling of changes in public school funding, public school quality, and the availability of private schools. Results show home schooling rates to be positively correlated with state funding increases yet negatively correlated with local funding increases. Additionally, home schooling is less prevalent in counties with larger private school infrastructures, and the quality of the public schools is not a factor in determining home schooling rates. Chapter 3 analyzes the role of high school graduation requirements on educational attainment. Utilizing a nationally representative dataset of high school students graduating between 1998 through 2003, probit analyses with state and year fixed effects suggest students facing higher course graduation requirements (CGRs) and more rigorous minimum competency tests (MCTs) graduate from high school at a lower rate. Students of average ability are most affected by CGR policies while students of lower ability are most affected by rigorous MCT policies. Stricter CGRs have a negative impact on PSE attendance. Survival time estimates indicate MCTs reduce high school duration among those who drop out. Chapter 4 examines the replacement of public assistance to the poor by private charitable organizations. Using a 9-year panel of individual donors from three New York City charities between 1894 and 1902, this paper evaluates the impact on donor behavior of changes in the social environment, including reverse crowd-out occurring from the elimination of social programs. Results do not indicate that New Yorkers gave in response to the cessation of social programs. Instead they responded to economic and demographic changes in the City as well as forces that differed across charities. Furthermore, most of the change in giving by consistent donors (those giving at least 4 of the 9 years) was driven by donors located in the lower and higher percentiles.