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The Urban Review

, Volume 49, Issue 1, pp 47–71 | Cite as

The Effects of the Great Recession on Educational Attainment: Evidence from a Large Urban High School District

  • Kfir Mordechay
Article
First Online:

Abstract

Economic crises are a recurrent phenomenon in American society, yet there is little knowledge of the impacts on educational opportunity. Using data from a large high school district as a case study, this research explores the impact of the Great Recession (2007–2009) on high school senior graduation rates in an area at the epicenter of the Recession. A logistic regression model with cluster robust standard errors is developed to estimate the recession’s impact on student subgroups’ graduation rates between the periods 2004–2013 for maximum variation. Results show that students who are historically “at-risk” experienced significant declines in graduation rates at the beginning of the recession in 2008. The decline is followed by a steep increase in graduation rates beginning in 2009, largely driven by increases for the most disadvantaged groups. These results suggest that the recession created a counter-cyclical demand for education.

Keywords

Economics The Great Recession Race and ethnicity Geography/place Equality/inequality 
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Notes

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Conflict of interest

The author declares no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)Los AngelesUSA

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