The Impacts of School Facilities Investments in the Mid-Century South

Research has estimated how school spending on teacher and other staff salaries and other costs affect test scores, home values, and later life outcomes. Less attention has been paid to the impacts of investments in a school’s physical facilities on these outcomes. Economists Elizabeth Cascio and Ethan Lewis will examine the extent to which racial inequality in school facilities narrowed in the 1950s and the impact of infrastructure investments on school attainment and home values. They will analyze infrastructure data from 11 former Confederate states from roughly 1935 to 1965 for their study.