IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejpol/v14y2022i1p1-39.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

School Spending and Student Outcomes: Evidence from Revenue Limit Elections in Wisconsin

Author

Listed:
  • E. Jason Baron

Abstract

This study examines the impacts of two distinct types of school spending on student outcomes. State-imposed revenue limits cap the total amount of revenue that a school district in Wisconsin can raise unless the district holds a referendum asking voters to exceed the cap. Importantly, Wisconsin law requires districts to hold separate referenda for operational and capital expenditures, which allows for estimating their independent effects. Leveraging close elections in a dynamic regression discontinuity framework, I find that increases in operational spending have substantial positive effects on test scores, dropout rates, and postsecondary enrollment, but additional capital expenditures have little impact.

Suggested Citation

  • E. Jason Baron, 2022. "School Spending and Student Outcomes: Evidence from Revenue Limit Elections in Wisconsin," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 1-39, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:14:y:2022:i:1:p:1-39
    DOI: 10.1257/pol.20200226
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20200226
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E125821V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20200226.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20200226.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/pol.20200226?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:14:y:2022:i:1:p:1-39. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.