IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp8371.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Parental Preferences for Primary School Characteristics

Author

Listed:
  • Borghans, Lex

    (Maastricht University)

  • Golsteyn, Bart H.H.

    (Maastricht University)

  • Zölitz, Ulf

    (University of Zurich)

Abstract

Free school choice has often been argued to be a tide that lifts school quality through increased competition. This paper analyzes the underlying assumption that school quality is an important choice criterion for parents. Using a large and representative data set of over 15,000 Dutch primary school starters we estimate models of school demand that incorporate heterogeneity in school preferences. Our results show that traditional measures for school quality matter, but other characteristics, such as school denomination and educational philosophy, are more important predictors of choice. Preferences for these school characteristics are strongly heterogeneous across parents.

Suggested Citation

  • Borghans, Lex & Golsteyn, Bart H.H. & Zölitz, Ulf, 2014. "Parental Preferences for Primary School Characteristics," IZA Discussion Papers 8371, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8371
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp8371.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pierre Koning & Karen Wiel, 2012. "School Responsiveness to Quality Rankings: An Empirical Analysis of Secondary Education in the Netherlands," De Economist, Springer, vol. 160(4), pages 339-355, December.
    2. Simon Burgess & Ellen Greaves & Anna Vignoles & Deborah Wilson, 2015. "What Parents Want: School Preferences and School Choice," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(587), pages 1262-1289, September.
    3. Train,Kenneth E., 2009. "Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521766555, September.
    4. Pierre Koning & Karen van der Wiel, 2013. "Ranking The Schools: How School-Quality Information Affects School Choice In The Netherlands," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 466-493, April.
    5. Justine S. Hastings & Richard Van Weelden & Jeffrey Weinstein, 2007. "Preferences, Information, and Parental Choice Behavior in Public School Choice," NBER Working Papers 12995, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Brian A. Jacob & Lars Lefgren, 2007. "What Do Parents Value in Education? An Empirical Investigation of Parents' Revealed Preferences for Teachers," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(4), pages 1603-1637.
    7. Justine S. Hastings & Jeffrey M. Weinstein, 2008. "Information, School Choice, and Academic Achievement: Evidence from Two Experiments," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(4), pages 1373-1414.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ellen Greaves & Hélène Turon, 2023. "School choice and neighborhood sorting: Equilibrium consequences of geographic school admissions," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 24/779, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    2. Andreas Bjerre-Nielsen & Mikkel Høst Gandil, 2024. "Attendance Boundary Policies and the Limits to Combating School Segregation," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 16(1), pages 190-227, February.
    3. Thomas Wouters & Zoltan Hermann & Carla Haelermans, 2018. "Demand for secondary school characteristics - Evidence from school choice data in Hungary," Budapest Working Papers on the Labour Market 1803, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    4. Mariana Laverde, 2022. "Distance to Schools and Equal Access in School Choice Systems," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 1046, Boston College Department of Economics.
    5. Nienke Ruijs & Hessel Oosterbeek, 2019. "School Choice in Amsterdam: Which Schools are Chosen When School Choice is Free?," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 14(1), pages 1-30, Winter.
    6. Mariana Laverde, 2022. "Distance to Schools and Equal Access in School Choice Systems," Working Papers 2022-002, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thomas Wouters & Zoltan Hermann & Carla Haelermans, 2018. "Demand for secondary school characteristics - Evidence from school choice data in Hungary," Budapest Working Papers on the Labour Market 1803, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    2. Koning, Pierre & van der Wiel, Karen, 2010. "Ranking the Schools: How Quality Information Affects School Choice in the Netherlands," IZA Discussion Papers 4984, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Pamela Giustinelli, 2016. "Group Decision Making With Uncertain Outcomes: Unpacking Child–Parent Choice Of The High School Track," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 57(2), pages 573-602, May.
    4. Diether W Beuermann & C Kirabo Jackson & Laia Navarro-Sola & Francisco Pardo, 2023. "What is a Good School, and Can Parents Tell? Evidence on the Multidimensionality of School Output," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(1), pages 65-101.
    5. Figlio, D. & Karbownik, K. & Salvanes, K.G., 2016. "Education Research and Administrative Data," Handbook of the Economics of Education,, Elsevier.
    6. Pathak, Parag A. & Shi, Peng, 2021. "How well do structural demand models work? Counterfactual predictions in school choice," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 222(1), pages 161-195.
    7. Nunes, Luis C. & Reis, Ana Balcão & Seabra, Carmo, 2015. "The publication of school rankings: A step toward increased accountability?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 15-23.
    8. Camargo, Braz & Camelo, Rafael & Firpo, Sergio & Ponczek, Vladimir, 2014. "Information, Market Incentives, and Student Performance," IZA Discussion Papers 7941, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Atila Abdulkadiroğlu & Nikhil Agarwal & Parag A. Pathak, 2015. "The Welfare Effects of Coordinated Assignment: Evidence from the NYC HS Match," NBER Working Papers 21046, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Nienke Ruijs & Hessel Oosterbeek, 2019. "School Choice in Amsterdam: Which Schools are Chosen When School Choice is Free?," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 14(1), pages 1-30, Winter.
    11. Yuta Kuroda, 2022. "What does the disclosure of school quality information bring? The effect through the housing market," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 125-149, January.
    12. Trajkovski, Samantha & Zabel, Jeffrey & Schwartz, Amy Ellen, 2021. "Do school buses make school choice work?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    13. Hinnerich, Björn Tyrefors & Vlachos, Jonas, 2017. "The impact of upper-secondary voucher school attendance on student achievement. Swedish evidence using external and internal evaluations," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-14.
    14. Masi, Barbara, 2018. "A ticket to ride: The unintended consequences of school transport subsidies," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 100-115.
    15. Parag A. Pathak & Peng Shi, 2014. "Demand Modeling, Forecasting, and Counterfactuals, Part I," NBER Working Papers 19859, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Brian Jacob & Brian McCall & Kevin Stange, 2018. "College as Country Club: Do Colleges Cater to Students’ Preferences for Consumption?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(2), pages 309-348.
    17. Zhang, Hongliang, 2016. "Identification of treatment effects under imperfect matching with an application to Chinese elite schools," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 56-82.
    18. Allen, Rebecca & Burgess, Simon, 2013. "Evaluating the provision of school performance information for school choice," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 175-190.
    19. Steven F. Lehrer & R. Vincent Pohl & Kyungchul Song, 2022. "Multiple Testing and the Distributional Effects of Accountability Incentives in Education," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(4), pages 1552-1568, October.
    20. Imberman, Scott A. & Lovenheim, Michael F., 2016. "Does the market value value-added? Evidence from housing prices after a public release of school and teacher value-added," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 104-121.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    school competition; school quality; school choice;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp8371. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.