Working Paper: NBER ID: w11805
Authors: Justine S. Hastings; Thomas J. Kane; Douglas O. Staiger
Abstract: This paper uses data from the implementation of a district-wide public school choice plan in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina to estimate preferences for school characteristics and examine their implications for the local educational market. We use parental rankings of their top three choices of schools matched with student demographic and test score data to estimate a mixed-logit discrete choice demand model for schools. We find that parents value proximity highly and the preference attached to a school's mean test score increases with student's income and own academic ability. We also find considerable heterogeneity in preferences even after controlling for income, academic achievement and race, with strong negative correlations between preferences for academics and school proximity. Simulations of parental responses to test score improvements at a school suggest that the demand response at high-performing schools would be larger than the response at low-performing schools, leading to disparate demand-side pressure to improve performance under school choice.
Keywords: school choice; parental preferences; school competition
JEL Codes: I0; I20; I28
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Distance (R12) | School Choice (I21) |
| Student Income (D31) | Preferences for School Test Scores (I21) |
| Baseline Academic Ability (G53) | Preferences for School Test Scores (I21) |
| School Test Scores (I21) | Parental Choices (J13) |
| School Characteristics (I23) | Demand Response at High-Performing Schools (D29) |
| Unique Aspects of School Choice Plan (I21) | Biases from Residential Sorting and Strategic Behavior (R23) |