How Neighborhoods and Schools Shape Inequality, Featuring Felix Elwert, David Harding, Geoffrey Wodtke, and Marissa Thompson

Neighborhoods and schools—through factors like socioeconomic composition, access to resources, racial segregation, and social networks—contribute to patterns of inequality and influence mobility. Today’s guests provide cross-disciplinary insights into how these environments shape opportunities and outcomes.

First, host Steven Durlauf speaks with the University of Wisconsin’s Felix Elwert, UC Berkeley’s David Harding, and the Stone Center’s own Geoffrey Wodtke on their research, which investigates neighborhood effects and how they manifest throughout economic and social systems, with a spotlight on segregation in schools.

Their discussion is followed by a conversation with Columbia University’s Marissa Thompson, who studies education’s role in shaping inequality. She shares her findings with hosts Geoffrey Wodtke and Damon Jones on how parents form their perceptions of neighborhood schools, how those perceptions can drive segregation, and what policy interventions might make a difference.

Read the 2011 study authored by Geoff, Felix and David, “Neighborhood Effects in Temporal Perspective: The Impact of Long-Term Exposure to Concentrated Disadvantage on High School Graduation.”

Read Marissa’s 2023 study of parental perceptions of school segregation, “My School District Isn’t Segregated: Experimental Evidence on the Effect of Information on Parental Preferences Regarding School Segregation.”

Learn more about the Stone Center at our website.