Working Paper: NBER ID: w29791
Authors: Stephen B. Billings; Hugh Macartney; Geunyong Park; John D. Singleton
Abstract: In this paper, we show that the election of a new school board member causes home values in their neighborhood to rise. This increase is identified using narrowly-decided contests and is driven by non-Democratic members, whose neighborhoods appreciate about 4% on average relative to those of losing candidates. We find that student test scores in the neighborhood public schools of non-Democratic winners also relatively increase, but this effect is driven by changing student composition, including via the manipulation of attendance zones, rather than improvements in school quality (as measured by test score value-added). Notably, we detect no differential changes when comparing neighborhood or scholastic outcomes between winning and losing Democratic school board candidates. These results suggest that partisan affiliation is correlated with private motivations for seeking public office.
Keywords: school board elections; home values; public service; self-interest; partisan affiliation
JEL Codes: D72; H75; I24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Winning school board elections (K16) | Home values rise (R31) |
| Winning school board elections (non-democratic winners) (D72) | Home values rise (R31) |
| Winning school board elections (democratic candidates) (K16) | Home values remain unchanged (R31) |
| Winning school board elections (non-democratic winners) (D72) | Student test scores increase (I21) |
| Changes in student composition (I24) | Student test scores increase (I21) |
| Winning school board elections (democratic candidates) (K16) | Student test scores remain unchanged (C12) |