Examining the role of neighbors and neighborhood in education: Three empirical essays.

摘要

This thesis uses spatial data to examine the role of neighbors and neighborhood on educational outcome of middle and high school students from an independent school district in Dallas county in Texas, USA. More specifically, the first essay seeks to empirically examine whether residential peers have any effect on individual educational outcomes. Having established the presence of such geographic peer effects, the second essay examines if built-environment bias these estimates because choice of residential location may cause correlation in educational outcomes. Results find a consistent positive and significant endogenous geographic peer effect that are essentially unaffected by the built-environment characteristics. The final essay examines the effect of foreclosure on the most intrinsic and immediate neighborhood of a student---her residence, and finds a substantial negative effect of foreclosure on educational outcomes.