Valuing school quality using boundary discontinuity

Gibbons, Stephen, Machin, Stephen and Silva, Olmo (2013) Valuing school quality using boundary discontinuity. Journal of Urban Economics, 75 . pp. 15-28. ISSN 0094-1190

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Abstract

Existing research shows that house prices respond to local school quality as measured by average test scores. However, higher test scores could signal better quality teaching and academic value-added, or higher ability, sought-after intakes. In our research, we show decisively that value-added drives households' demand for good schooling. However, prior achievement - linked to the background of children in school - also matters. In order to identify these effects, we improve the boundary discontinuity regression methodology by matching identical properties across admissions authority boundaries; by allowing for boundary effects and spatial trends; by re-weighting our data towards transactions that are closest to district boundaries; by eliminating boundaries that coincide with major geographical features; and by submitting our estimates to a number of novel falsification tests. Our results survive this battery of experiments and show that a one-standard deviation change in either school average value-added or prior achievement raises prices by around 3%.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-urban-...
Additional Information:	© 2012 Elsevier Inc.
Library of Congress subject classification:	L Education > L Education (General)
Journal of Economic Literature Classification System:	C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C2 - Econometric Methods: Single Equation Models; Single Variables > C21 - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models H - Public Economics > H7 - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations > H75 - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education > I20 - General R - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics > R2 - Household Analysis > R21 - Housing Demand
Sets:	Departments > Geography and Environment Research centres and groups > Spatial Economics Research Centre Collections > Economists Online Research centres and groups > Centre for Economic Performance (CEP)
Date Deposited:	08 Aug 2012 10:59
URL:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/45246/

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