Do Better Schools Matter? Parental Valuation of Elementary Education
利用学区边界上的房价差异，发现家长愿意为测试成绩提高5%多支付2.5%的房价，说明学校质量对家长有实际价值。
The evaluation of numerous school reforms requires an understanding of the value of better schools. Given the difficulty of calculating the relationship between school quality and student outcomes, I turn to another method and use house prices to infer the value parents place on school quality. I look within school districts at houses located on attendance district boundaries; houses then differ only by the elementary school the child attends. I thereby effectively remove the variation in neighborhoods, taxes, and school spending. I find that parents are willing to pay 2.5 percent more for a 5 percent increase in test scores. This finding is robust to a number of sensitivity checks.