School choice, segregation, and forced school closure

We exploit the forced closure of three segregated primary schools in
Amsterdam to establish the determinants of school choice of ethnic
minority pupils. The schools were closed due to mismanagement and poor
assessment from the Education Inspectorate. Most of the affected
students were of socially disadvantaged and non-western migrant
background. Our analysis contrasts the respective school choice
decisions of the 'early movers' who had voluntarily changed schools
within two years before the forced closure and the 'forced movers' who
had to move to other schools after the closure. Using a conditional
logit model and a nested logit framework, we find that: (i) students of
segregated schools tend to re-concentrate into the same schools rather
than disperse into different schools; (ii) primary school choice is
nested upon school type; and (iii) the 'forced movers' prefer schools
with more peers of own (non-western and low socioeconomic) background,
less peer truancy, and shorter residence-to-school distance.

Keywords: School choice; Ethnic segregation; School closure; School
mobility, Nested logi