IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pit/wpaper/6651.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Government Privatization and Political Participation: The Case of Charter Schools

Author

Listed:
  • Jason B. Cook

Abstract

Governments around the world have privatized public services in the name of efficiency andcitizen empowerment, but some argue that privatization could also affect citizen participation indemocratic governance. We explore this possibility by estimating the impact of charter schools(which are publicly funded but privately operated) on school district elections. The analysisindicates that the enrollment of district students in charter schools reduced the number of votescast in district school board contests and, correspondingly, reduced turnout in the odd-yearelections in which those contests are held. This impact is concentrated in districts that servelow-achieving, impoverished, and minority students, leading to a modest decline in the share ofvoters in those districts who are black and who have children. There is little evidence that charterschool expansion affected the outcomes of school board elections or turnout in other elections

Suggested Citation

  • Jason B. Cook, 2019. "Government Privatization and Political Participation: The Case of Charter Schools," Working Paper 6651, Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh.
    • Handle: RePEc:pit:wpaper:6651
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econ.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/working_papers/WP.19.04.upload.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vladimir Kogan & Stéphane Lavertu & Zachary Peskowitz, 2016. "Performance Federalism and Local Democracy: Theory and Evidence from School Tax Referenda," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 60(2), pages 418-435, April.
    2. Carlson, Deven & Lavertu, Stéphane, 2016. "Charter school closure and student achievement: Evidence from Ohio," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 31-48.
    3. Campbell, Andrea Louise, 2002. "Self-Interest, Social Security, and the Distinctive Participation Patterns of Senior Citizens," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 96(3), pages 565-574, September.
    4. Cook, Jason B., 2018. "The effect of charter competition on unionized district revenues and resource allocation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 48-62.
    5. Ferreyra, Maria Marta & Kosenok, Grigory, 2018. "Charter school entry and school choice: The case of Washington, D.C," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 160-182.
    6. Lovenheim, Michael F. & Walsh, Patrick, 2018. "Does choice increase information? Evidence from online school search behavior," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 91-103.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Christian Buerger, 2020. "The Influence of Finance Policies on Charter School Supply Decisions in Five States," Public Budgeting & Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 44-74, June.
    2. Matthew Ridley & Camille Terrier, 2018. "Fiscal and Education Spillovers from Charter School Expansion," NBER Working Papers 25070, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Bo Feng, 2023. "Charter school proliferation and school district fiscal stress, a chicken‐egg problem," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 853-869, December.
    4. Helen F. Ladd & John D. Singleton, 2020. "The Fiscal Externalities of Charter Schools: Evidence from North Carolina," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 15(1), pages 191-208, Winter.
    5. Sorensen, Lucy C. & Holt, Stephen B., 2021. "Sorting it Out: The Effects of Charter Expansion on Teacher and Student Composition at Traditional Public Schools," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    6. Zhang, Muyang & Zhou, Guangsu & Fan, Gang, 2020. "Political Control and Economic Inequality: Evidence from Chinese Cities," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    7. Michela M. Tincani, 2021. "Teacher labor markets, school vouchers, and student cognitive achievement: Evidence from Chile," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 12(1), pages 173-216, January.
    8. Srinivas C. Parinandi, 2020. "Policy Inventing and Borrowing among State Legislatures," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(4), pages 852-868, October.
    9. Ganslmeier, Michael, 2023. "Are Campaign Promises Effective?," EconStor Preprints 274069, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    10. Berlinski,Samuel G. & Ferreyra,Maria Marta & Flabbi,Luca & Martin,Juan David, 2020. "Child Care Markets, Parental Labor Supply, and Child Development," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9427, The World Bank.
    11. Larry M. Bartels & Henry E. Brady, 2003. "Economic Behavior in Political Context," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 156-161, May.
    12. Nirav Mehta, 2017. "Competition In Public School Districts: Charter School Entry, Student Sorting, And School Input Determination," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 58(4), pages 1089-1116, November.
    13. Karin Edmark, 2019. "Location choices of Swedish independent schools," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 63(1), pages 219-239, August.
    14. Alber, Jens & Kohler, Ulrich, 2008. "The inequality of electoral participation in Europe and America and the politically integrative functions of the welfare state," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Inequality and Social Integration SP I 2008-202, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    15. Bruhn, Jesse & Imberman, Scott & Winters, Marcus, 2022. "Regulatory arbitrage in teacher hiring and retention: Evidence from Massachusetts Charter Schools," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    16. Jeffrey Max & Christina Tuttle & Philip Gleason & Diana McCallum & Brian Gill, "undated". "How Does School Choice Affect Student Achievement in Traditional Public Schools?," Mathematica Policy Research Reports b36d8f1911714dd68ceac8a3e, Mathematica Policy Research.
    17. Dennis Epple & Richard Romano & Ron Zimmer, 2015. "Charter Schools: A Survey of Research on Their Characteristics and Effectiveness," NBER Working Papers 21256, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Edmark, Karin, 2018. "Location choices of Swedish independent schools – How does allowing for private provision affect the geography of the education market?," Working Paper Series 2018:16, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    19. Artemov, Georgy, 2021. "Assignment mechanisms: Common preferences and information acquisition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    20. Sarah R. Cohodes & Elizabeth M. Setren & Christopher R. Walters, 2021. "Can Successful Schools Replicate? Scaling Up Boston's Charter School Sector," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 138-167, February.

    More about this item

    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:pit:wpaper:6651. 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: Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/depghus.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.