Who Needs a Fracking Education? The Educational Response to Low-Skill-Biased Technological Change

Abstract

The authors explore the educational response to fracking—a recent technological breakthrough in the oil and gas industry—by taking advantage of the timing of its diffusion and spatial variation in shale reserves. They show that fracking has significantly increased relative demand for less-educated male labor and increased high school dropout rates of male teens, both overall and relative to females. Estimates imply that, absent fracking, the teen male dropout rate would have been 1 percentage point lower over the period 2011–15 in the average labor market with shale reserves, implying an elasticity of school enrollment with respect to earnings below historical estimates. Fracking increased earnings and job opportunities more among young men than male teenagers, suggesting that educational decisions respond to improved earnings prospects, not just opportunity costs. Other explanations for the findings, such as changes in school quality, migration, or demographics, receive less empirical support.

The Impact of Coal Activity on Local Revenues for Elementary and Secondary Education in Appalachia

“…2 Other work has specifically examined the impact of fracking directly on education finances, finding increases in local revenues per pupil. However, these increases were either offset by negative effects on state and federal aid (Cascio and Narayan 2022) or effects were heterogeneous across regions (Ratledge and Zachary 2017). Some research has examined how demand for natural resources impacts enrollment, educational attainment, and teacher quality (Cascio and Narayan 2022;Kumar 2017;Marchand and Weber 2020;Morissette, Chan, and Lu 2015;Rickman, Wang, and Winters 2017).…”

“…However, these increases were either offset by negative effects on state and federal aid (Cascio and Narayan 2022) or effects were heterogeneous across regions (Ratledge and Zachary 2017). Some research has examined how demand for natural resources impacts enrollment, educational attainment, and teacher quality (Cascio and Narayan 2022;Kumar 2017;Marchand and Weber 2020;Morissette, Chan, and Lu 2015;Rickman, Wang, and Winters 2017). All of the aforementioned papers examine unconventional oil and gas booms following the development of fracking, and findings do not necessarily extend to the context of other resources, including coal booms and busts.…”

Summaries of Doctoral Dissertations

“…Specifically, I study the schooling behavior and intergenerational mobility of young urban males in the United States during the 1930s. Broadly, education is one mechanism through which younger generations climb the socioeconomic ladder and sever intergenerational links in economic outcomes—understanding the interaction between macroeconomic shocks and microeconomic mechanisms driving changes in human capital investment is essential for guiding education and labor policy (Goldin and Katz 1997; Black, McKinnish, and Sanders 2005; Cascio and Narayan 2015; Kerwin, Hurst, and Notowidigdo 2018). In this chapter, I take advantage of the decentralized public education system of the United States in the 1930s to study how schooling decisions are affected by changes in education quality and the opportunity cost of youth labor.…”

Digging Deep: Resource Exploitation and Higher Education

“…Our paper also adds to the literature on natural resources and the link between extractive industries and human capital (Cascio and Narayan, 2022;Rickman et al, 2017;Mejía, 2020;Balza et al, 2021;Mosquera, 2022;Acuna et al, 2022). Most of these analyses use within-country variation and focus on primary or secondary education, with only a few exploring effects on higher education (Emery et al, 2012;Rickman et al, 2017;Yamada et al, 2018;Balza et al, 2021;Mosquera, 2022;Acuna et al, 2022).…”