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Are Involved Parents Providing Public Goods or Private Goods?

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  • Patrick Walsh

    (St. Michael's College)

Abstract

Parents who lobby their children's schools for better or increased educational resources may be providing a schoolwide public good. However, they may also be capturing a larger share of school resources, possibly leaving other families worse off. A regression of within-school variation in input quality on parent-initiated school contact identifies this ``private-good'' effect, using involvement in civic organizations to instrument for contact. A 10 percent increase in the probability of parental contact raises the probability of inclusion in a gifted program by 2 percent to 3 percent. At the average school, the highest ``non-gifted'' students significantly outscore the lowest ``gifted'' students, suggesting that this lobbying crowds out deserving students. Alongside these private-good effects, involved parents also provide public goods: again instrumenting with civic involvement, higher participation in a school's parent—teacher organization leads to a higher probability that principals frequently observe and evaluate all teachers at that school.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick Walsh, 2008. "Are Involved Parents Providing Public Goods or Private Goods?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 36(6), pages 678-705, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:36:y:2008:i:6:p:678-705
    DOI: 10.1177/1091142107308298
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Walsh, Patrick, 2010. "Is parental involvement lower at larger schools?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 959-970, December.
    2. Chung, Bobby W., 2020. "Peers’ parents and educational attainment: The exposure effect," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    3. Fruehwirth, Jane Cooley & Gagete-Miranda, Jessica, 2019. "Your peers’ parents: Spillovers from parental education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    4. Diemer, Andreas, 2022. "Endogenous peer effects in diverse friendship networks: Evidence from Swedish classrooms," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    5. Jinho Kim, 2020. "The Effect of Classmates’ Maternal College Attainment on Volunteering in Young Adulthood," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 101(6), pages 2289-2311, October.
    6. Park, Sira & Stone, Susan I. & Holloway, Susan D., 2017. "School-based parental involvement as a predictor of achievement and school learning environment: An elementary school-level analysis," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 195-206.
    7. Jang, Hayun & Kim, Jinho, 2023. "Peers’ parental education and cardiovascular disease risk in adulthood: The mediating role of health-related behaviors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).

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