Publications

2014
Fryer RG, Curto VE. The Potential of Urban Boarding Schools for the Poor: Evidence from SEED. Journal of Labor Economics (2014). 2014;32 (1) :65-93.Abstract

The SEED schools, which combine a “No Excuses” charter model with a five-day-a-week boarding program, are America’s only urban public boarding schools for the poor. We provide the first causal estimate of the impact of attending SEED schools on academic achievement, with the goal of understanding whether changing both a student’s social and educational en- vironment through boarding is an effective strategy to increase achievement among the poor. Using admission lotteries, we show that attending a SEED school increases achievement by 0.211 standard deviations in reading and 0.229 standard deviations in math, per year of attendance. We argue that the large impacts on reading are consistent with dialectical theories of language development.

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Dobbie W, Roland G. Fryer J. The Impact of Attending a School with High-Achieving Peers: Evidence from New York City Exam Schools. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics (July 2014). 2014;6 (3) :58-75. PDF Online Appendix
2013
Fryer R, Katz L. Achieving Escape Velocity: Neighborhood and School Interventions to Reduce Persistent Inequality. American Economic Review (Papers and Proceedings) . 2013;103 (3) :232-237. PDF Appendix
Fryer R, Loury G. Valuing Diversity. Journal of Political Economy. 2013;121 (4) :747-774. PDF
Roland G. Fryer J, Pager D, Spenkuch JL. Racial Disparities in Job Finding and Offered Wages. Journal of Law and Economics. 2013;56 (August) :633-689. PDF
Fryer R, Dobbie W. Getting Beneath the Veil of Effective Schools: Evidence from New York City. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. 2013;5 (4) :28-60. PDF Appendix
Fryer R, Levitt S. Testing for Racial Differences in the Mental Ability of Young Children. American Economic Review . 2013;103 (2) :981-1005. PDF
Fryer RG, Heaton PS, Levitt SD, Murphy KM. Measuring Crack Cocaine and Its Impact. Economic Inquiry. 2013;51 (3) :1651-1681. PDF Crack Index for Cities Crack Index for States Crack Index adjusted for racial composition for Cities Crack Index adjusted for racial composition for States
Fryer R. Teacher Incentives and Student Achievement: Evidence from New York City Public Schools. Journal of Labor Economics. 2013;31 (2) :373-427. PDF
2012
Roland G Fryer J. Learning from the Successes and Failures of Charter Schools, in The Hamilton Project. Washington, D.C. ; 2012. PDF
Fryer R, Levitt SD, List J, Sadoff S. Enhancing the Efficacy of Teacher Incentives through Loss Aversion: A Field Experiment. 2012.Abstract

Domestic attempts to use financial incentives for teachers to increase student
achievement have been ineffective. In this paper, we demonstrate that exploiting the
power of loss aversion—teachers are paid in advance and asked to give back the money if
their students do not improve sufficiently—increases math test scores between 0.201
(0.076) and 0.398 (0.129) standard deviations. This is equivalent to increasing teacher quality by more than one standard deviation. A second treatment arm, identical to the loss aversion treatment but implemented in the standard fashion, yields smaller and statistically insignificant results. This suggests it is loss aversion, rather than other features of the design or population sampled, that leads to the stark differences between our findings and past research.

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Fryer R, Levitt S. Hatred and Profits: Under the Hood of the Ku Klux Klan. Quarterly Journal of Economics. 2012;127 (4) :1883-1925. PDF
Fryer R, Kahn L, Levitt S, Spenkuch J. The Plight of Mixed Race Kids. Review of Economics and Statistics. 2012;94 (3) :621-634. PDF
2011
Roland G Fryer J, Allan BM. The Powers and Pitfalls of Education Incentives, in The Hamilton Project. Washington, D.C. ; 2011. PDF
Fryer R, Dobbie W. Are High-Quality Schools Enough to Increase Achievement Among the Poor? Evidence from the Harlem Children’s Zone. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. . 2011;3 (3).Abstract

Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), an ambitious social experiment, combines community programs with charter schools. We provide the first empirical test of the causal impact of HCZ charters on educational outcomes. Both lottery and instrumental variable identification strategies suggest that the effects of attending an HCZ middle school are enough to close the black-white achievement gap in mathematics. The effects in elementary school are large enough to close the racial achievement gap in both mathematics and ELA. We conclude with evidence that suggests high-quality schools are enough to significantly increase academic achievement among the poor. Community programs appear neither necessary nor sufficient.

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Fryer R, Holden R. Measuring the Compactness of Political Districting Plans. Journal of Law and Economics. 2011. PDF Accompanying Congressional District Maps 1-13.pdf Accompanying Congressional District Maps 14-25.pdf Accompanying Congressional District Maps 26-43.pdf
Fryer R. It May Not Take a Village: Increasing Achievement Among the Poor. Social Inequality and Educational Disadvantage. 2011. PDF
Fryer R. Financial Incentives and Student Achievement: Evidence from Randomized Trials. Quarterly Journal of Economics. 2011;126 (4) :1755-1798. PDF
2010
Fryer R, Greenstone M. The Causes and Consequences of Attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. 2010;2 (1). PDF
Fryer R. An Empirical Analysis of 'Acting White'. Journal of Public Economics. 2010;94 (5-6) :380-396. PDF

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