The Impact of Better School Accessibility on Student outcomes

This paper identifies and quantifies the effects of better transport accessibility on student performance measured by mathematics test scores. A 27 km new subway line and the extension of an existing line in Santiago (Chile) in the mid-2000s reduced the distance between some schools and their nearest subway station. Estimates are derived using fixed effects models that account for endogeneity in the relation between student performance and school-subway network distance. Increased proximity to the subway network is associated with substantially lower test scores.