Replication Data for: The negative consequences of sports gambling opportunities on human capital formation: evidence from Spain

This repository contains the replication package--the instructions, data and code-- necessary to replicate the results presented in Espadafor & Martínez (2021). The proliferation of on-site betting shops has received enormous public attention, becoming one of the most alarming health policy issues in contemporary cities. However, there is little evidence on whether its growing presence nearby vulnerable populations produce social harm beyond its known adverse individual effects. This study provides new evidence on the negative societal effects of betting houses. Our research design takes advantage of a new wave of openings in Madrid (Spain), which created a sudden increase in the supply of on-site gambling. Using a differences-in-differences design, we find that new betting houses decline nearby high schools' educational performance, especially in public schools in less advantaged areas. This effect is neither trivial nor diminishing with time. This evidence suggests that betting houses increase inequality of educational opportunities. The ubiquity of betting houses around vulnerable populations in multiple regions drives us to think that these findings have relevant policy implications for many countries currently designing policies tackling the increase of problem gambling. Please read the README.file which contains the information on the data sources and how to reproduce our results. If you face any problem, please email us.

本仓库包含用于复现Espadafor与Martínez（2021）一文所述研究结果的复现套件——涵盖操作说明、数据集与代码文件。
实体投注网点的泛滥已引发公众广泛关注，成为当代城市中最亟待重视的公共卫生政策议题之一。然而，目前鲜有实证研究能够证实，投注网点在弱势群体周边的持续扩张，除了已知的个体层面负面影响外，是否还会引发额外的社会危害。
本研究为投注网点带来的负面社会效应提供了全新的实证依据。本研究的实验设计依托西班牙马德里市新一轮投注网点开设浪潮——该事件使得当地实体赌博服务供给出现突发性增长。本研究采用双重差分（Differences-in-Differences）设计，结果显示：新增投注网点会显著拉低周边高中的教育表现，尤其对欠发达区域的公立高中影响更为突出。该影响不仅不容小觑，且不会随时间推移而衰减。
上述实证结果表明，投注网点的存在会加剧教育机会不平等。当前多个区域内弱势群体周边均普遍分布着投注网点，这一现状提示我们，本研究结论对当前正制定政策应对问题赌博加剧问题的诸多国家，均具有重要的政策参考价值。
请查阅README文件，其中包含了数据集来源与复现本研究结果的具体操作步骤。若您在使用过程中遇到任何问题，请致信联系我们。