What Parents Want: School Preferences and School Choice

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Burgess, Simon; Greaves, Ellen; Vignoles, Anna; Wilson, Deborah
• 署名单位: University of Bristol; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; University of Cambridge
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12153
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 1262-1289
• 关键词: admissions

摘要

We investigate parents' preferences for school attributes in a unique data set of survey, administrative, census and spatial data. Using a conditional logit, incorporating characteristics of households, schools and home-school distance, we show that most families have strong preferences for schools' academic performance. Parents also value schools' socio-economic composition and distance, which may limit the potential of school choice to improve academic standards. Most of the variation in preferences for school quality across socio-economic groups arises from differences in the quality of accessible schools rather than differences in parents' preferences, although more advantaged parents have stronger preferences for academic performance.