How does school district adjustment affect housing prices: An empirical investigation from Hangzhou, China

A quality promotion of neighborhood primary schools no doubt elevates nearby housing price. But which houses benefit from the public policy is important to improve educational equity. Accurate identification of such capitalization effects will help policymakers optimize the allocation of scarce public goods. Previous studies on this issue have been biased due to endogeneity and overlooking the impacts of facility quality change. Based on the Hangzhou's school district adjustment in 2012, the current work contributes to housing price effects of policies and education quality changes, rather than a static educational facility. The difference-in-differences model with quantile regression is constructed to obtain a more precise and detailed estimation among the different sub-markets. Results show that the average price effect estimated by the difference-in-differences is up to nearly 800 yuan/m2, higher than cross-sectional estimation. Only housing with better schools after reassignment witness a price premium. Low-priced and small houses earn more than 1000 yuan/m2, whereas high-priced and large houses are not significantly affected. The results demonstrate that future policies should ensure the rights of low-income groups to attend high quality primary school and guard against the gentrification of low-priced houses.