TY - JOUR
T1 - A spatial model of school district open enrollment choice
AU - Brasington, David
AU - Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso
AU - Guci, Ledia
N1 - Funding Information:
We employ a theoretical model to frame our research question and motivate the variables used in the empirical analysis. It is drawn from Hoyt (1996) , which in turn builds on Epple et al. (1984) . The model starts with j school districts in a Tiebout (1956) sorting landscape, where residents maximize utility by choosing a school district in which to live. The school district is characterized by a certain level of property taxes and public services. Ohio school districts are primarily funded by property taxes (see Brasington, 2003 ). While school districts receive some federal grants, and a foundation grant redistributes some of the property taxes, the property tax is the only policy variable chosen by the school district. 7 7 The model generates an equilibrium in which school districts are stratified by income, and the high-income school district has higher property values. The model shows that an open enrollment policy causes some students from the low-income school district to transfer to the high-income school district. An extension of the model shows the effect of an open enrollment policy on property values when school quality is driven by peer effects, and not just spending.
Funding Information:
Thanks to research assistance work of Paul Darby and Italia Jackson, to Sheila Milligan for the private school data, and for comments from Xinyue Ye and attendees of the Western Regional Science Association meetings. Brasington is grateful for $10,000 funding from the Lindner College of Business . Work on this project began in 2010, first draft completed in 2012. The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments of three anonymous referees and Editor Dan McMillen.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier B.V.
Copyright:
Copyright 2015 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2016/1/1
Y1 - 2016/1/1
N2 - We provide an analysis of the determinants of adoption of inter-district open enrollment policies by school districts in Ohio. Legislation passed in 1997 allows Ohio's school districts to adopt one of the following open enrollment options: 1) prohibit enrollment of students from any other school district in the state (no open enrollment), 2) permit enrollment of students from adjacent school districts, or 3) permit enrollment of students from any school district in the state. We employ a recently developed spatial autoregressive lag multinomial logit model to examine the determinants of adoption of each open enrollment alternative. Among the most influential factors are school districts' demographic characteristics, financial factors, and competitive environment. More importantly, the results show evidence of strategic interaction, with a positive correlation in policy choice between neighboring school districts of about 0.4.
AB - We provide an analysis of the determinants of adoption of inter-district open enrollment policies by school districts in Ohio. Legislation passed in 1997 allows Ohio's school districts to adopt one of the following open enrollment options: 1) prohibit enrollment of students from any other school district in the state (no open enrollment), 2) permit enrollment of students from adjacent school districts, or 3) permit enrollment of students from any school district in the state. We employ a recently developed spatial autoregressive lag multinomial logit model to examine the determinants of adoption of each open enrollment alternative. Among the most influential factors are school districts' demographic characteristics, financial factors, and competitive environment. More importantly, the results show evidence of strategic interaction, with a positive correlation in policy choice between neighboring school districts of about 0.4.
KW - C21
KW - C25
KW - H75
KW - I22
KW - R51
KW - School choice
KW - School district open enrollment policy
KW - Spatial autoregressive lag
KW - Spatial multinomial logit
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U2 - 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2015.10.005
DO - 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2015.10.005
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84946867237
VL - 56
SP - 1
EP - 18
JO - Regional Science and Urban Economics
JF - Regional Science and Urban Economics
SN - 0166-0462
ER -