Horizontal Differentiation and the Policy Effect of Charter Schools

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Gilraine, Michael; Petronijevic, Uros; Singleton, John D.
• 署名单位: New York University; York University - Canada; University of Rochester
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20200531
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 239-276
• 关键词: student-achievement; public-schools; COMPETITION; entry; impacts; CHOICE

摘要

While school choice may enhance competition, incentives for public schools to raise productivity may be muted if public education is imperfectly substitutable with alternatives. This paper estimates the aggregate effect of charter school expansion on education quality while accounting for the horizontal differentiation of charter programs. Our research design leverages variation following the removal of North Carolina's statewide cap to compare test score changes for students who lived near entering charters to those farther away. We find learning gains that are driven by public schools responding to increased competition from non-horizontally differentiated charter schools, even before those charters actually open.