The Supply of Public School Quality

28 Pages Posted: 2 Sep 2003

See all articles by David M. Brasington

David M. Brasington

University of Cincinnati - Department of Economics

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: June 27, 2002

Abstract

Education economists have estimated many education production functions but they have not estimated a supply curve of public school quality. In order to estimate the supply of public school quality, the price of a unit of public schooling must be found. Invoking the theory of implicit markets, the price of a unit of public school quality is derived from a series of housing market hedonic estimations, in which house price is regressed as a function of school quality. The implicit price is then inserted in an estimation of the supply of public schooling. The estimated price elasticity of supply is 0.14, suggesting that 1) demand-side policies do not effectively raise the quantity of public schooling supplied, and 2) school funding equalization attempts are not likely to significantly change the quantity of public school outcomes supplied in either rich or poor districts.

Keywords: supply of schooling, hedonic house price, school finance reform, input output analysis

JEL Classification: I21, H41, R21

Suggested Citation

Brasington, David M., The Supply of Public School Quality (June 27, 2002). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=424165 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.424165

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