The Effect of School Uniforms on Student Achievement and Behavior

Uniform use in public schools is rising, but we know little about how they affect students.

In this National Bureau of Economic Research paper the authors assess how uniforms affect behavior, achievement and other outcomes. They do so using a unique dataset from a large urban school district in the southwest United States, Each school in the district determines adoption independently, providing variation over schools and time. By including student and school fixed-effects they find evidence that uniform adoption improves attendance in secondary grades, while in elementary schools they generate large increases in teacher retention.