American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
The Distributional Consequences of Public School Choice
American Economic Review
(pp. 129–52)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
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 type residents need not benefit.Citation
Avery, Christopher, and Parag A. Pathak. 2021. "The Distributional Consequences of Public School Choice." American Economic Review 111 (1): 129–52. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20151147Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- H75 State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions
- I21 Analysis of Education
- I28 Education: Government Policy
- R23 Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics
- R31 Housing Supply and Markets