Educational Tracking, Residential Sorting, and Intergenerational Mobility

I examine how student allocation rules impact achievement of students of different ability and socioeconomic background. When the assignment rule shifts from exam to district based, a model illustrates that income relative to ability becomes a stronger predictor of student achievement and higher income households sort towards the better school districts. Using evidence from South Korea, I find that the impact of father’s education, relative to one’s middle school grade, on college entrance exam score increases twofold under district assignment. The change in housing land price is 13 percentage points higher in the better school district when the regime shifts.