TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Gershenson, Seth
AU  - Hayes, Michael S.
        TI  - Short-Run Externalities of Civic Unrest: Evidence from Ferguson, Missouri
        PY  - 2016/Jul/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 10091
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp10091
        AB  - We document externalities of the civic unrest experienced in Ferguson, MO following the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager. Difference-in-differences and synthetic control method estimates compare Ferguson-area schools to neighboring schools in the greater St. Louis area and find that the unrest led to statistically significant, arguably causal declines in students' math and reading achievement. Attendance is one mechanism through which this effect operated, as chronic absence increased by five percent in Ferguson-area schools. Impacts were concentrated in elementary schools and at the bottom of the achievement distribution and spilled over into majority black schools throughout the area.
        KW  - natural experiment
KW  - achievement gaps
KW  - Ferguson
KW  - civic unrest
KW  - externalities
        ER  -