IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/9088.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why Do School District Budget Referenda Fail?

Author

Listed:
  • Ronald G. Ehrenberg
  • Randy A. Ehrenberg
  • Christopher L. Smith
  • Liang Zhang

Abstract

Our paper analyzes historical data for New York State on the percentagee of school budget proposals that are defeated each year and panel data that we have collected on budget vote success for indvidual school districts in the state. We find that changes in state aid matter, but not as much as one might expect. Defeating a budget proposal in one year neither increases nor decreases the likelihood that voters will defeat a proposal the next year. Districts whose school board members have longer terms have lower probabilities of having their budget proposals defeated. Finally, measures of school district educational and financial performance do not appear to influence budget vote outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Ronald G. Ehrenberg & Randy A. Ehrenberg & Christopher L. Smith & Liang Zhang, 2002. "Why Do School District Budget Referenda Fail?," NBER Working Papers 9088, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9088
    Note: PE ED
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w9088.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gramlich, Edward M & Rubinfeld, Daniel L, 1982. "Micro Estimates of Public Spending Demand Functions and Tests of the Tiebout and Median-Voter Hypotheses," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(3), pages 536-560, June.
    2. Ronald G. Ehrenberg & Richard P. Chaykowski & Randy A. Ehrenberg, 1988. "Determinants of the Compensation and Mobility of School Superintendents," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 41(3), pages 386-401, April.
    3. Dunne, Stephanie & Reed, W Robert & Wilbanks, James, 1997. "Endogenizing the Median Voter: Public Choice Goes to School," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 93(1-2), pages 99-118, October.
    4. Heckman, James J & Borjas, George J, 1980. "Does Unemployment Cause Future Unemployment? Definitions, Questions and Answers from a Continuous Time Model of Heterogeneity and State Dependence," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 47(187), pages 247-283, August.
    5. Lankford, Ralph Hamilton, 1985. "Efficiency and Equity in the Provision of Public Education," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(1), pages 70-80, February.
    6. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    7. Richard J. Butler & Ronald G. Ehrenberg, 1981. "Estimating the Narcotic Effect of Public Sector Impasse Procedures," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 35(1), pages 3-20, October.
    8. Lankford, R. Hamilton, 1985. "Preferences of citizens for public expenditures on elementary and secondary education," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 1-20, January.
    9. Rubinfeld, Daniel L, 1977. "Voting in a Local School Election: A Micro Analysis," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 59(1), pages 30-42, February.
    10. Romer, Thomas & Rosenthal, Howard & Munley, Vincent G., 1992. "Economic incentives and political institutions: Spending and voting in school budget referenda," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 1-33, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shannon Suldo & E. Huebner, 2006. "Is Extremely High Life Satisfaction During Adolescence Advantageous?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 78(2), pages 179-203, September.
    2. Ronald G. Ehrenberg, 2017. "Coauthors and Collaborations," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 62(1), pages 3-18, March.
    3. Paul N. Thompson & Joseph Whitley, 2017. "The effect of school district and municipal government financial health information on local tax election outcomes: evidence from fiscal stress labels in Ohio," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 265-288, March.
    4. Lee, Kyung-Gon & Polachek, Solomon, 2014. "Do School Budgets Matter? The Effect of Budget Referenda on Student Performance," IZA Discussion Papers 8056, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Huan Gong & Cynthia L. Rogers, 2014. "Does Voter Turnout Influence School Bond Elections?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 81(1), pages 247-262, July.
    6. Yaw M. Mensah & Michael P. Schoderbek & Min Cao & Savita A. Sahay, 2023. "The disciplinary effect of taxpayer balloting on public spending: some empirical evidence," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 791-819, February.
    7. Ronald G. Ehrenberg, 2005. "Involving Undergraduates in Research To Encourage Them To Undertake Ph.D. Study in Economics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 184-188, May.
    8. Rockoff, Jonah E., 2010. "Local response to fiscal incentives in heterogeneous communities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 138-147, September.
    9. Marc Meredith, 2009. "The Strategic Timing Of Direct Democracy," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(1), pages 159-177, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rockoff, Jonah E., 2010. "Local response to fiscal incentives in heterogeneous communities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 138-147, September.
    2. Dayton M. Lambert & Christopher D. Clark & Michael D. Wilcox & William M. Park, 2009. "Public Education Financing Trends and the Gray Peril Hypothesis," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 619-648, December.
    3. Blomquist, Glenn C. & Coomes, Paul A. & Jepsen, Christopher & Koford, Brandon C. & Troske, Kenneth R., 2014. "Estimating the social value of higher education: willingness to pay for community and technical colleges," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(1), pages 3-41, January.
    4. Eric J. Brunner & Stephen L. Ross, 2009. "Is the Median Voter Decisive? Evidence of 'Ends Against the Middle' From Referenda Voting Patterns," Working papers 2009-02, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised May 2010.
    5. Cutler, David M. & Elmendorf, Douglas W. & Zeckhauser, Richard, 1999. "Restraining the Leviathan: property tax limitation in Massachusetts," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 313-334, March.
    6. Rosenzweig, Mark R. & Wolpin, Kenneth I., 1988. "Migration selectivity and the effects of public programs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 265-289, December.
    7. Possebom, Vitor, 2018. "Sharp bounds on the MTE with sample selection," MPRA Paper 89785, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Brunner, Eric J. & Ross, Stephen L., 2010. "Is the median voter decisive? Evidence from referenda voting patterns," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(11-12), pages 898-910, December.
    9. Van den Berg, Gerard J., 2001. "Duration models: specification, identification and multiple durations," Handbook of Econometrics, in: J.J. Heckman & E.E. Leamer (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 55, pages 3381-3460, Elsevier.
    10. Cutler, David M & Elmendorf, Douglas W & Zeckhauser, Richard J, 1993. "Demographic Characteristics and the Public Bundle," Public Finance = Finances publiques, , vol. 48(Supplemen), pages 178-198.
    11. Aharonson, Barak S. & Baum, Joel A.C. & Plunket, Anne, 2008. "Inventive and uninventive clusters: The case of Canadian biotechnology," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6-7), pages 1108-1131, July.
    12. Christine Fauvelle-Aymar & Abel François, 2018. "Place of registration and place of residence: the non-linear detrimental impact of transportation cost on electoral participation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 176(3), pages 405-440, September.
    13. P. Taylor, Mark & Böheim, René, 2001. "Job search methods, intensity and success in Britain in the 1990s," ISER Working Paper Series 2001-07, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    14. Heckman, James J. & Lalonde, Robert J. & Smith, Jeffrey A., 1999. "The economics and econometrics of active labor market programs," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 31, pages 1865-2097, Elsevier.
    15. Card, David & Payne, A. Abigail, 2002. "School finance reform, the distribution of school spending, and the distribution of student test scores," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 49-82, January.
    16. R. Lankford, 1986. "Property taxes, tax-cost illusion and desired education expenditures," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 79-97, January.
    17. Jordan, Jeffrey L. & Elnagheeb, Abdelmoneim H., 1992. "The Structure Of Citizen Preferences For Government Soil Erosion Control Programs," Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 24(2), pages 1-10, December.
    18. Gross, John, 1995. "Heterogeneity of preferences for local public goods: The case of private expenditure on public education," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 103-127, May.
    19. Theodore C. Bergstrom & Judith Roberts & Daniel L. Rubinfeld & Perry Shapiro, 1986. "The Efficiency of the Supply of Public Education," NBER Working Papers 1901, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. David M. Brasington, 2017. "What types of people sort to which public services?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 96(3), pages 537-553, August.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9088. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.