Parental demand for school quality: Evidence from apartments in Seoul

Bumhwan Kim and Jungmin Lee

Journal of Housing Economics, 2026, vol. 72, issue C

Abstract: In Seoul, South Korea, middle school assignment depends on residential proximity within school districts, allowing parents to increase the probability of their child attending a preferred school by living nearby. Exploiting the institutional feature, we examine whether housing prices capitalize on school quality. Using administrative data on about half a million apartment transactions, we implement a boundary fixed effects approach that compares housing prices in narrowly defined neighborhoods along the boundaries between two adjacent school districts. We find that apartment prices are higher near middle schools that had stronger high school admission outcomes in the previous years. Our findings suggest that parents place significant value on academic strength as a key aspect of school quality.

Keywords: School quality capitalization; Housing markets; Boundary fixed effects approach (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 I21 I28 R21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhouse:v:72:y:2026:i:c:s1051137726000227

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhe.2026.102141

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