The Distributional Consequences of Public School Choice

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Avery, Christopher; Pathak, Parag A.
• 署名单位: Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20151147
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 129-152
• 关键词: parental valuation; benefit students; COMPETITION; equilibrium; provision; PRIVATE; EFFICIENCY; TAXPAYERS; location; models

摘要

School choice systems aspire to delink residential location and school assignments by allowing children to apply to schools outside of their neighborhood. However, choice programs also affect incentives to live in certain neighborhoods, and this feedback may undermine the goals of choice. We investigate this possibility by developing a model of public school and residential choice. School choice narrows the range between the highest and lowest quality schools compared to neighborhood assignment rules, and these changes in school quality are capitalized into equilibrium housing prices. This compressed distribution generates an ends-against-the-middle trade-off with school choice compared to neighborhood assignment. Paradoxically, even when choice results in improvement in the lowest-performing schools, the lowest rye residents need not benefit.