Black men born in the Cotton South during the turn of the twentieth century attended school for three and half fewer years relative to their white counterparts. In this paper, I examine whether economic fluctuations contributed to blacks receiving fifty percent less schooling than whites. Using US Census data, I find a positive correlation between black school attendance and cotton production. The attendance rates of white children are unaffected by changes in cotton production. Using features of the Southern agricultural economy, I show credit constraints drives the positive correlation between school attendance and cotton production for black households. Paul Lombardi is Assistant Professor of Economics at San Jose State University, 1 Washington Square, San Jose, CA 95192. Email: plombardi@ucdavis.edu. A number of faculty advisers, including Dan Bogart, Gary Richardson, Damon Clark, and Priya Ranjan contributed to advancing this research. I also thank seminar participants at UCI and the All UC Organization’s Grad conference as well as the editors of this journal and referees for their comments.

中文翻译：

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考察经济冲击对南方农民就学选择的影响†

二十世纪初在棉花南地区出生的黑人上学的时间比白人少了三年半。在本文中，我研究了经济波动是否导致黑人的受教育率比白人低百分之五十。使用美国人口普查数据，我发现黑人学校的出勤率与棉花产量之间呈正相关。白人儿童的出勤率不受棉花产量变化的影响。利用南方农业经济的特征，我发现信贷约束驱动了黑人入学率与棉花生产之间的正相关。Paul Lombardi是位于圣何塞华盛顿广场1号的圣何塞州立大学经济学助理教授，加利福尼亚州95192。电子邮件：plombardi@ucdavis.edu。一些教职顾问，Dan Bogart，Gary Richardson，Damon Clark和Priya Ranjan等人为推进这项研究做出了贡献。我还要感谢UCI和所有UC组织的Grad会议的研讨会参与者以及本期刊的编辑和裁判的意见。