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Demand (and supply) in an inter-district public school choice program

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  • Reback, Randall

Abstract

This study examines parents' demand for sending their children to a public school located outside their residential school district. Using a unique data set that contains information concerning both inter-district transfers and rejections of transfer applications, I am able to identify which school district characteristics attract the greatest demand for incoming transfers. The analyses reveal that mean student test scores are stronger predictors of transfer demand than both students' socio-economic characteristics and school district spending, suggesting that parents care more about outcomes than inputs. In addition, while districts are only supposed to reject transfer students due to capacity concerns, districts' supply decisions are also correlated with differences in student performance across neighboring districts.

Suggested Citation

  • Reback, Randall, 2008. "Demand (and supply) in an inter-district public school choice program," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 402-416, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:27:y:2008:i:4:p:402-416
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    1. Patrick Bayer & Fernando Ferreira & Robert McMillan, 2004. "Tiebout Sorting, Social Multipliers and the Demand for School Quality," NBER Working Papers 10871, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    7. Reback, Randall, 2005. "House prices and the provision of local public services: capitalization under school choice programs," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 275-301, March.
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    9. Jacob, Brian A. & Lefgren, Lars, 2005. "What Do Parents Value in Education? An Investigation of Parents' Revealed Preferences for Teachers," Working Paper Series rwp05-043, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
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    1. Welsch, David M. & Statz, Bambi & Skidmore, Mark, 2010. "An examination of inter-district public school transfers in Wisconsin," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 126-137, February.
    2. Welsch, David M. & Zimmer, David M., 2012. "Do student migrations affect school performance? Evidence from Wisconsin's inter-district public school program," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 195-207.
    3. Lincove, Jane Arnold & Valant, Jon & Cowen, Joshua M., 2018. "You can't always get what you want: Capacity constraints in a choice-based school system," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 94-109.
    4. Cory Koedel & Julian R. Betts & Lorien A. Rice & Andrew C. Zau, 2009. "The Social Cost of Open Enrollment as a School Choice Policy," Working Papers 0906, Department of Economics, University of Missouri, revised 13 Apr 2010.
    5. Takashi Oshio & Shinpei Sano & Yuko Ueno & Kouichiro Mino, 2010. "Evaluations by parents of education reforms: evidence from a parent survey in Japan," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 229-246.
    6. Brunner, Eric J. & Cho, Sung-Woo & Reback, Randall, 2012. "Mobility, housing markets, and schools: Estimating the effects of inter-district choice programs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(7), pages 604-614.
    7. Lorien Rice & Mark Henderson & Margaret Hunter, 2017. "Neighborhood Priority or Desegregation Plans? A Spatial Analysis of Voting on San Francisco’s Student Assignment System," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 36(6), pages 805-832, December.
    8. Soma Ghosh, 2013. "Participation in school choice: a spatial probit analysis of neighborhood influence," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 50(1), pages 295-313, February.
    9. Maurício Benegas & Márcio Veras Corrêa, 2020. "Educational supply policies: distortions and labor market performance," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 129(3), pages 203-239, April.
    10. David M. Welsch & David M. Zimmer, 2015. "The Relationship Between Student Transfers and District Academic Performance: Accounting for Feedback Effects," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 10(3), pages 399-422, July.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General

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