Scholars@Duke
Charles T. Clotfelter

Charles T. Clotfelter CV

Z. Smith Reynolds Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Public Policy Studies
Sanford School of Public Policy
charles.clotfelter@duke.edu
Box 90245, Durham, NC 27708
236 Sanford Building, Box 90245, Durham, NC 27708
CV

Selected Publications

Better State Lotteries

Journal Article Public Finance Review · May 1, 2024 Over the last three decades, a little-noted change has taken place in state lotteries. This change is an increase in the average payout rate, the share of sales that is returned to players in the form of prizes. Because it reduces the rate of implicit taxa ... Full text Cite

RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN STUDENT ACCESS TO HIGH-QUALITY TEACHERS

Journal Article Education Finance and Policy · September 1, 2023 Access to high-quality teachers in K–12 schools differs systematically by racial group. This policy brief reviews the academic research documenting these differences and the labor market forces and segregation patterns that solidify them. It also presents ... Full text Cite

School Segregation in the Era of Color-Blind Jurisprudence and School Choice

Journal Article Urban Affairs Review · March 1, 2023 The decades-long resistance to federally imposed school desegregation entered a new phase at the turn of the new century. At that time, federal courts stopped pushing racial balance as a remedy for past segregation and adopted in its place a color-blind ap ... Full text Cite

School Segregation at the Classroom Level in a Southern ‘New Destination’ State

Journal Article Race and Social Problems · June 1, 2021 Using detailed administrative data for public schools, we document racial and ethnic segregation at the classroom level in North Carolina, a state that has experienced a sharp increase in Hispanic enrollment. We decompose classroom-level segregation in cou ... Full text Cite

Raising the bar for college admission: North Carolina’s increase in minimum math course requirements

Journal Article Education Finance and Policy · July 1, 2019 We explore the effects of a statewide policy change that increased the number of high school math courses required for admission to four-year public universities in North Carolina. Using data on cohorts of eighth-grade students from 1999 to 2006, we exploi ... Full text Cite

MULTIFACETED AID FOR LOW-INCOME STUDENTS AND COLLEGE OUTCOMES: EVIDENCE FROM NORTH CAROLINA

Scholarly Edition · January 1, 2018 We study the evolution of a campus-based aid program for low-income students that began with grant-heavy financial aid and later added a suite of nonfinancial supports. We find little to no evidence that program eligibility during the early years (2004–200 ... Full text Cite

The growing segmentation of the charter school sector in North Carolina

Scholarly Edition · October 1, 2017 A defining characteristic of charter schools is that they introduce a strong market element into public education. In this paper, we examine through the lens of a market model the evolution of the charter school sector in North Carolina between 1999 and 20 ... Full text Cite

Overview of the volume

Journal Article RSF · April 1, 2016 Full text Cite

U.S. Higher education effectiveness

Journal Article RSF · April 1, 2016 Full text Cite

The aftermath of accelerating algebra: Evidence from district policy initiatives

Report · January 1, 2015 The proportion of students taking a first algebra course in middle school has doubled over the past generation and there have been calls to make eighth grade algebra universal. We use significant policy shifts in the timing of algebra in two large North Ca ... Full text Cite

Developmental education in North Carolina community colleges

Journal Article Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis · January 1, 2015 This article contributes to the empirical literature on remediation in community colleges by using policy variation across North Carolina’s community colleges to examine how remediation affects various outcomes for traditional-age college students. We find ... Full text Cite

Success in Community College: Do Institutions Differ?

Journal Article Research in Higher Education · November 1, 2013 Community colleges are complex organizations and assessing their performance, though important, is difficult. Compared to 4-year colleges and universities, community colleges serve a more diverse population and provide a wider variety of educational progra ... Full text Cite

Comments

Chapter · January 1, 2013 Full text Cite

New destinations, new trajectories? The educational progress of Hispanic youth in North Carolina.

Journal Article Child development · September 2012 Since 1990, Latin American immigrants to the United States have dispersed beyond traditional gateway regions to a number of "new destinations." Both theory and past empirical evidence provide mixed guidance as to whether the children of these immigrants ar ... Full text Cite

After "Brown": The rise and retreat of school desegregation

Book · October 16, 2011 The United States Supreme Court's 1954 landmark decision, Brown v. Board of Education, set into motion a process of desegregation that would eventually transform American public schools. This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of how B ... Cite

After 'Brown': The rise and retreat of school desegregation

Journal Article After 'Brown': The Rise and Retreat of School Desegregation · October 16, 2011 The United States Supreme Court's 1954 landmark decision, Brown v. Board of Education, set into motion a process of desegregation that would eventually transform American public schools. This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of how B ... Cite

Teacher Mobility, school Segregation, and Pay-Based policies to level the playing field

Journal Article Education Finance and Policy · June 1, 2011 Research has consistently shown that teacher quality is distributed very unevenly among schools, to the clear disadvantage of minority students and those from low-income families. Using North Carolina data on the length of time individual teachers remain i ... Full text Cite

Big-Time sports in American Universities

Book · January 1, 2011 For almost a century, big-time college sport has been a wildly popular but consistently problematic part of American higher education. The challenges it poses to traditional academic values have been recognized from the start, but they have grown more omin ... Full text Cite

Is Sports in Your Mission Statement?

Internet Publication · October 24, 2010 Open Access Cite

Teacher credentials and student achievement in high school: A cross-subject analysis with student fixed effects

Journal Article Journal of Human Resources · January 1, 2010 We use data on statewide end-of-course tests in North Carolina to examine the relationship between teacher credentials and student achievement at the high school level. We find compelling evidence that teacher credentials, particularly licensure and certif ... Full text Cite

80 years of trade-offs in college sports

Internet Publication · November 27, 2009 Open Access Cite

The academic achievement gap in grades 3 to 8

Journal Article Review of Economics and Statistics · May 1, 2009 Using data for North Carolina public school students in grades 3 to 8, we examine achievement gaps between white students and students from other racial and ethnic groups. We focus on cohorts of students who stay in the state's public schools for all six y ... Full text Cite

Are Teacher Absences Worth Worrying About in the United States?

Journal Article Education Finance and Policy · April 2009 Using detailed data from North Carolina, we examine the frequency, incidence, and consequences of teacher absences in public schools as well as the impact of a policy designed to reduce absences. The incidence of teacher absences is regressive: wh ... Full text Cite

Would higher salaries keep teachers in high-poverty schools? Evidence from a policy intervention in North Carolina

Journal Article Journal of Public Economics · June 1, 2008 For a three-year time period beginning in 2001, North Carolina awarded an annual bonus of $1800 to certified math, science and special education teachers working in public secondary schools with either high-poverty rates or low test scores. Using longitudi ... Full text Cite

Teacher bonuses and teacher retention in low-performing schools: Evidence from the North Carolina $1,800 teacher bonus program

Journal Article Public Finance Review · January 1, 2008 Between 2001 and 2004, the state of North Carolina gave an annual salary bonus of $1,800 to certified math, science, and special education teachers in a set of low-performing and/or high-poverty secondary schools. Eligible teachers were to continue receivi ... Full text Cite

School Segregation Under Color-blind Jurisprudence: The Case of North Carolina

Journal Article Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law · 2008 Cite

Teacher credentials and student achievement: Longitudinal analysis with student fixed effects

Report · December 1, 2007 We use a rich administrative dataset from North Carolina to explore questions related to the relationship between teacher characteristics and credentials on the one hand and student achievement on the other. Though the basic questions underlying this resea ... Full text Cite

High Poverty Schools and the Distribution of Teachers and Principals

Journal Article North Carolina Law Review · June 2007 Cite

Abandoning the Promise

Other Baltimore Sun · 2007 Cite

The Death of Segregation

Other News & Observer · 2007 Cite

Surprising Success Among Hispanic students

Internet Publication · June 12, 2006 Open Access Cite

Teacher-Student Matching and the Assessment of Teacher Effectiveness

Journal Article Journal of Human Resources · 2006 Cite

Gambling Taxes

Chapter · October 1, 2005 Gambling has experienced rapid growth in recent decades, marked by the legalization of heretofore forbidden games and increasing rates of participation among households. This legalization is invariably accompanied by both regulation and taxation. Governmen ... Full text Cite

Who Teaches Whom? Race and the Distribution of Novice Teachers

Journal Article Economics of Education Review · 2005 Cite

The nonprofit sector in K-12 education

Journal Article · December 1, 2004 Full text Cite

The Decline of Diversity in Our Schools

Internet Publication · May 15, 2004 Open Access Cite

Do School Accountability Systems Make It More Difficult for Low-Performing Schools to Attract and Retain High-Quality Teachers?

Journal Article Journal of Policy Analysis and Management · March 1, 2004 Administrative data from North Carolina are used to explore the extent to which that state's relatively sophisticated school-based accountability system has exacerbated the challenges that schools serving low-performing students face in retaining and attra ... Full text Cite

Private Schools, Segregation, and the Southern States

Journal Article Peabody Journal of Education · 2004 Link to item Cite

Segregation and Resegregation in North Carolina's Public School Classrooms

Journal Article North Carolina Law Review · May 2003 Cite

Retaking the SAT

Journal Article Journal of Human Resources · January 1, 2003 Using data on applicants to three selective universities, we analyze a college applicant's decision to retake the SAT. We model this decision as an optimal search problem, and use the model to assess the impact of college admissions policies on retaking be ... Full text Cite

Alumni giving to elite private colleges and universities

Journal Article Economics of Education Review · January 1, 2003 This paper examines patterns of alumni giving, using data on two cohorts of former students from a sample of private colleges and universities. Higher levels of contributions are associated with higher income, whether or not the person graduated from the i ... Full text Cite

Data to support scholarship on nonprofit organizations: An introduction

Journal Article American Behavioral Scientist · June 1, 2002 Full text Cite

Charitable giving, income, and taxes: An analysis of panel data

Journal Article American Economic Review · March 1, 2002 Full text Cite

Interracial contact in high school extracurricular activities

Journal Article Urban Review · January 1, 2002 Using data from yearbooks for 193 high schools, this study examines the degree of interracial contact in 8,849 high school teams and other organizations. More than one-third of these groups were all-white, while only about 3% were exclusively nonwhite. Owi ... Full text Cite

Who Are the Alumni Donors? Giving by Two Generations of Alumni from Selective Colleges

Journal Article Nonprofit Management and Leadership · December 2001 Cite

Are whites still fleeing? Racial patterns and enrollment shifts in urban public schools, 1987-1996

Journal Article Journal of Policy Analysis and Management · January 1, 2001 The effect of interracial contact in public schools on the enrollment of whites has been an important concern in assessments of desegregation since the 1970s. It has been feared that "white flight" - meaning exit from or avoidance of racially mixed public ... Full text Cite

Public school segregation in metropolitan areas

Journal Article Land Economics · January 1, 1999 This paper presents measures of segregation in public schools for metropolitan areas. It shows that, not only are metropolitan areas very segregated, most of that segregation is due to racial disparities between districts rather than segregative patterns w ... Full text Cite

The familiar but curious economics of higher education: Introduction to a symposium

Journal Article Journal of Economic Perspectives · January 1, 1999 Full text Cite

Notes: The “Gambler's Fallacy” in Lottery Play

Journal Article Management Science · December 1993 The “gambler's fallacy” is the belief that the probability of an event is lowered when that event has recently occurred, even though the probability of the event is objectively known to be independent from one trial to the next. This paper provide ... Full text Cite

The Private Life of Public Economics

Journal Article Southern Economic Journal · April 1993 Cite

Lotteries in the real world

Journal Article Journal of Risk and Uncertainty · July 1, 1991 Observed patterns of lottery play suggest that many players believe they can improve their chance of winning by adjusting their bets according to which numbers have won in recent drawings, or in response to their dreams or other portents. This skill orient ... Full text Cite

The Peculiar Scale Economies of Lotto

Journal Article · July 1991 Cite

What Kind of Lottery for North Carolina?

Journal Article Popular Government · March 1991 Cite

On the Economics of State Lotteries

Journal Article Journal of Economic Perspectives · November 1, 1990 This article examines several aspects of the economics of state lotteries, focusing primarily on the demand for lottery products. We begin by giving a descriptive overview. The succeeding sections examine the motivations for playing lottery games ... Full text Cite

Is There a Regional Bias in Federal Tax Subsidy Rates for Giving?

Journal Article Public Finance/Finances Publiques · 1990 Cite

Redefining “success” in the state lottery business

Journal Article Journal of Policy Analysis and Management · January 1, 1990 Full text Cite

The Demand for Lottery Products

Scholarly Edition · April 1989 Cite

Tax-Induced Distortions in the Voluntary Sector

Journal Article Case-Western Law Review · 1988 Cite

Implicit Taxation in Lottery Finance

Journal Article · May 1987 Cite

Charitable giving and tax legislation in the Reagan era.

Journal Article Law and contemporary problems · January 1985 Full text Cite

Tax Cut Meets Bracket Creep: The Rise and Fall of Marginal Tax Rates, 1964-1984

Journal Article Public Finance Quarterly · April 1984 Cite

Tax Evasion and Tax Rates: An Analysis of Individual Returns

Journal Article Review of Economics and Statistics · August 1983 Cite

Permanent versus Transitory Tax Effects and the Realization of Capital Gains

Journal Article Quarterly Journal of Economics · November 1982 Cite

The Impact of the 1981 Tax Act on Individual Charitable Giving

Journal Article National Tax Journal · June 1982 Cite

Crimes and the Demand for Handguns: An Empirical Analysis

Journal Article Law and Policy Quarterly · October 1981 Cite

Explaining Unselfish Behavior: Crime and the Helpful Bystander

Journal Article Journal of Urban Economics · September 1980 Cite

Recent Empirical Work on Capital Gains

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Tax Association/Tax Institute of America · 1980 Cite

CAMPAIGN RESOURCE ALLOCATION AND THE REGIONAL IMPACT OF ELECTORAL COLLEGE REFORM

Journal Article Journal of Regional Science · January 1, 1980 Full text Cite

Tax incentives and charitable giving: evidence from a panel of taxpayers

Journal Article Journal of Public Economics · January 1, 1980 Full text Cite

On the Regressivity of State-Operated 'Numbers' Games

Journal Article National Tax Journal · December 1979 Cite

Equity, Efficiency and the Taxation of In-Kind Compensation

Journal Article National Tax Journal · March 1979 Cite

Urban school desegregation and declines in white enrollment: A reexamination

Journal Article Journal of Urban Economics · January 1, 1979 This paper presents a reexamination of James Coleman et al.'s study of white enrollment losses from desegregating urban school districts over the period 1968-1973. New equations are estimated using a different measure of desegregation, additional explanato ... Full text Cite

Alternative Measures of School Desegregation: A Methodological Note

Journal Article Land Economics · August 1978 Cite

Private Security and the Public Safety

Journal Article Journal of Urban Economics · July 1978 Cite

Assessing the 55 m.p.h. National Speed Limit

Journal Article Policy Sciences · June 1978 Cite

Assessing the national 55 m.p.h. speed limit

Journal Article Policy Sciences · June 1, 1978 This paper evaluates the desirability of the new national speed limit using tools of normative and positive economic analysis. The theoretical case for a speed limit is analyzed, and it is concluded that externalities in driving may justify the use of a sp ... Full text Cite

On Distributional Impact of Federal Interest Rate Restrictions

Journal Article Journal of Finance · March 1978 Cite

Private security and the public safety

Journal Article Journal of Urban Economics · January 1, 1978 The demand for private protection and the effect of such protective measures on the level of crime are examined. Private protection may reduce a household's expected victimization rate either by deterring some crime or by diverting crime to other household ... Full text Cite

Public Services, Private Substitutes, and the Demand for Protection Against Crime

Journal Article American Economic Review · December 1977 Cite

Urban Crime and Household Protective Measures

Journal Article Review of Economics and Statistics · November 1977 Cite

School Desegregation, 'Tipping' and Private School Enrollment

Journal Article Journal of Human Resources · December 1976 Cite

The Detroit Decision and 'White Flight'

Journal Article Journal of Legal Studies · January 1976 Cite

An Economic Appraisal of State Lotteries

Journal Article National Tax Journal · December 1975 Cite

The Effect of School Desegregation on Housing Prices

Journal Article Review of Economics and Statistics · November 1975 Cite

Spatial Rearrangement and the Tiebout Hypothesis: The Case of School Desegregation

Journal Article Southern Economic Journal · October 1975 Cite

Memphis Business Leadership and the Politics of Fiscal Crisis

Journal Article West Tennessee Historical Society Papers · 1973 Cite

The Growing Segmentation of the Charter School Sector in North Carolina

Journal Article Education Finance and Policy A defining characteristic of charter schools is that they introduce a strong market element into public education. In this paper, we examine through the lens of a market model the evolution of the charter school sector in North Carolina between 1999 and 20 ... Cite

Are Teacher Absences Worth Worrying About in the U.S.?

Journal Article Using detailed data from North Carolina, we examine the frequency, incidence, and consequences of teacher absences in public schools, as well as the impact of an absence disincentive policy. The incidence of teacher absences is regressive: schools in the ... Link to item Cite

The Academic Achievement Gap in Grades 3 to 8

Journal Article Using data for North Carolina public school students in grades 3 to 8, we examine achievement gaps between white students and students from other racial and ethnic groups. We focus on successive cohorts of students who stay in the state's public schools f ... Link to item Cite