INFORMATION, SCHOOL CHOICE, AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: EVIDENCE FROM TWO EXPERIMENTS

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hastings, Justine S.; Weinstein, Jeffrey M.
• 署名单位: Yale University; Syracuse University; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-5533
• DOI: 10.1162/qjec.2008.123.4.1373
• 发表日期: 2008
• 页码: 1373-1414
• 关键词: vouchers

摘要

We examine a natural experiment and a field experiment that provided direct information on school test scores to lower-income families in a public school choice plan. Receiving information significantly increases the fraction of parents choosing higher-performing schools. Parents with high-scoring alternatives nearby were more likely to choose nonguaranteed schools with higher test scores. Using random variation from each experiment, we find that attending a higher-scoring school increases student test scores. The results imply that school choice will most effectively increase academic achievement for disadvantaged students when parents have easy access to test score information and good options from which to choose.