Does Additional Spending Help Urban Schools? An Evaluation Using Boundary Discontinuities

Stephen Gibbons, Sandra McNally and Martina Viarengo

No 6281, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Improving the educational attainment of disadvantaged students in urban schools is a priority for policy worldwide, but existing research is equivocal about the effectiveness of additional funding for achieving this objective. This study exploits anomalies in the spatial dimension of school funding policy in England to provide new evidence on this question. An "area cost adjustment" and other aspects of the formula that allocates central grants to Local Authorities (school districts) means that neighbouring schools with similar intakes, operating in the same labour market and facing the same prices for inputs can receive very different incomes. We find that these funding disparities give rise to sizeable differences in pupil attainment in national tests at the end of primary school. This shows that school resources have an important role to play in improving educational attainment. The results have direct implications for the current "Pupil Premium" policy in England.

Keywords: education; urban schools; resources (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H52 I21 R0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2012-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-geo, nep-lab and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Published - published in: Journal of the European Economic Association, 2018, 16 (5), 1618-1668

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https://docs.iza.org/dp6281.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Does Additional Spending Help Urban Schools? An Evaluation Using Boundary Discontinuities (2018)
Working Paper: Does additional spending help urban schools? An evaluation using boundary discontinuities (2018)
Working Paper: Does Additional Spending Help Urban Schools? An Evaluation Using Boundary Discontinuities (2011)
Working Paper: Does Additional Spending Help Urban Schools? An Evaluation Using Boundary Discontinuities (2011)
Working Paper: Does additional spending help urban schools? An evaluation using boundary discontinuities (2011)
Working Paper: Does additional spending help urban schools? An evaluation using boundary discontinuities (2011)
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