TY  - JOUR
AU  - Rothstein,Jesse
TI  - Good Principals or Good Peers? Parental Valuation of School Characteristics, Tiebout Equilibrium, and the Effects of Inter-district Competition
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10666
PY  - 2004
Y2  - August 2004
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10666
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10666.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Jesse Rothstein
Goldman School of Public Policy
University of California, Berkeley
2607 Hearst Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94720-7320
Tel: 510/643-8561
Fax: 510/643-9657
E-Mail: rothstein@berkeley.edu
AB  - School choice policies may improve productivity if parents choose well-run schools, but not if parents primarily choose schools for their peer groups. Theoretically, high income families cluster near preferred schools in housing market equilibrium; these need only be effective schools if effectiveness is highly valued. If it is, equilibrium effectiveness sorting' will be more complete in markets offering more residential choice. Although effectiveness is unobserved to the econometrician, I discuss observable implications of effectiveness sorting. I find no evidence of a choice effect on sorting, indicating a small role for effectiveness in preferences and suggesting caution about choice's productivity implications.
ER  -