000			01492nam a22001457a 4500
999			_c521134 _d521134
008			221216b ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
100			_aSageman, Joseph _936308
245			_aSchool closures and rural population decline
260			_aRural Sociology
300			_a87(3), Sep, 2022: p.960-992
520			_aSince 1998, more than 6,000 public schools have closed in rural U.S. counties. Very little research considers how these school closures impact the future growth (or decline) of rural communities. Given rural schools' importance to parents, local labor markets, and civic life, closures could trigger or reinforce population loss. On the other hand, the configuration of schools may simply be a consequence of population loss and not a cause. This paper tests these hypotheses using records from the Common Core of Data (CCD) and U.S. Census. Employing an instrumental variable analysis that exploits exogenous variation in school district boundaries and a difference-in-difference design that groups counties by propensity scores, I find that school closures induce population loss in many—but not all—cases. Specifically, counties with the lowest propensities to close schools experience the largest negative effects on population. This finding suggests that policymakers often overlook potentially important unintended consequences of school consolidation in rural communities. – Reproduced
773			_aRural Sociology
906			_aRURAL DEVELOPMENT
942			_cAR