The Distributional Consequences of Public School Choice

Christopher Avery and Parag Pathak

American Economic Review, 2021, vol. 111, issue 1, 129-52

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.

JEL-codes: H75 I21 I28 R23 R31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Distributional Consequences of Public School Choice (2015)
Working Paper: The Distributional Consequences of Public School Choice (2015)
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DOI: 10.1257/aer.20151147

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