IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecoedu/v72y2019icp44-54.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are school officials held accountable for fiscal stress? Evidence from school district financial intervention systems

Author

Listed:
  • Thompson, Paul N.

Abstract

Performance accountability systems have generally been used as a way to provide salient information to citizens regarding school district performance, enabling voters to make more informed decisions at the ballot box. This paper considers the electoral accountability consequences of financial intervention systems, which monitor school district financial health and intervene in cases of severe financial problems. Examining the Ohio fiscal stress label system, I find that the labels received through this system lead to greater school board member and school administrator turnover, with larger effects found following the most severe label that involves the state takeover of the school district’s financial decision-making. The large turnover effects for school boards after the state takeover appear to be driven by a decreased voter preference for incumbents after the state takeover. These results suggest that citizens in these school districts are likely placing accountability pressure on school officials more as a result of the sanction (i.e., the state takeover) than the financial information these labels may provide.

Suggested Citation

  • Thompson, Paul N., 2019. "Are school officials held accountable for fiscal stress? Evidence from school district financial intervention systems," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 44-54.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:72:y:2019:i:c:p:44-54
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2019.05.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775718306757
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econedurev.2019.05.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thompson, Paul N., 2016. "School district and housing price responses to fiscal stress labels: Evidence from Ohio," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 54-72.
    2. R. Douglas Arnold & Nicholas Carnes, 2012. "Holding Mayors Accountable: New York's Executives from Koch to Bloomberg," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(4), pages 949-963, October.
    3. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2008. "Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 414-427, August.
    4. Lupia,Arthur & McCubbins,Mathew D., 1998. "The Democratic Dilemma," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521585934, July.
    5. Brender, Adi, 2003. "The effect of fiscal performance on local government election results in Israel: 1989-1998," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(9-10), pages 2187-2205, September.
    6. Gilens, Martin, 2001. "Political Ignorance and Collective Policy Preferences," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 95(2), pages 379-396, June.
    7. Oliver, J. Eric & Ha, Shang E., 2007. "Vote Choice in Suburban Elections," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 101(3), pages 393-408, August.
    8. Vladimir Kogan & Stéphane Lavertu & Zachary Peskowitz, 2016. "Do School Report Cards Produce Accountability Through the Ballot Box?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(3), pages 639-661, June.
    9. Isabel Brusca & Vicente Montesinos, 2006. "Are Citizens Significant Users of Government Financial Information?," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4), pages 205-209, September.
    10. 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.
    11. Thomas Luke Spreen & Caitlin M. Cheek, 2016. "Does Monitoring Local Government Fiscal Conditions Affect Outcomes? Evidence from Michigan," Public Finance Review, , vol. 44(6), pages 722-745, November.
    12. Vladimir Kogan & Stéphane Lavertu & Zachary Peskowitz, 2018. "Election Timing, Electorate Composition, and Policy Outcomes: Evidence from School Districts," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 62(3), pages 637-651, July.
    13. Patrick Flavin & Michael T. Hartney, 2017. "Racial Inequality in Democratic Accountability: Evidence from Retrospective Voting in Local Elections," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 61(3), pages 684-697, July.
    14. Thompson, Paul N., 2017. "Effects of fiscal stress labels on municipal government finances, housing prices, and the quality of public services: Evidence from Ohio," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 98-116.
    15. Jacobson, Gary C., 1989. "Strategic Politicians and the Dynamics of U.S. House Elections, 1946–86," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 83(3), pages 773-793, September.
    16. Holbein, John, 2016. "Left Behind? Citizen Responsiveness to Government Performance Information," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 110(2), pages 353-368, May.
    17. Michael K. Miller, 2013. "For the Win! The Effect of Professional Sports Records on Mayoral Elections," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 94(1), pages 59-78, March.
    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. Gregg, John J. & Lavertu, Stéphane, 2023. "Test-based accountability and educational equity: Breaking through local district politics?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    2. 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.
    3. Thompson, Paul N., 2017. "Effects of fiscal stress labels on municipal government finances, housing prices, and the quality of public services: Evidence from Ohio," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 98-116.
    4. Cantoni, Enrico & Gazzè, Ludovica & Schafer, Jerome, 2021. "Turnout in concurrent elections: Evidence from two quasi-experiments in Italy," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    5. Rodrigo Martins & Francisco Veiga, 2013. "Economic voting in Portuguese municipal elections," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 155(3), pages 317-334, June.
    6. James Tilley & Christopher Wlezien, 2008. "Does Political Information Matter? An Experimental Test Relating to Party Positions on Europe," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 56(1), pages 192-214, March.
    7. Matt Guardino & Suzanne Mettler, 2020. "Revealing the “Hidden welfare state†: How policy information influences public attitudes about tax expenditures," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 3(1).
    8. Valentino Larcinese, 2007. "Does political knowledge increase turnout? Evidence from the 1997 British general election," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 387-411, June.
    9. Siodla, James, 2020. "Debt and taxes: Fiscal strain and US city budgets during the Great Depression," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    10. Hirota, Haruaki & Yunoue, Hideo, 2022. "Fiscal rules and creative accounting: Evidence from Japanese municipalities," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    11. Corey Lang & Shanna Pearson‐Merkowitz & Zachary Scott, 2024. "Voter support for bond referenda: Does it matter if costs are presented as aggregate vs. personal costs?," Public Budgeting & Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(1), pages 14-37, March.
    12. Burret, Heiko T. & Feld, Lars P., 2018. "(Un-)intended effects of fiscal rules," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 166-191.
    13. Lorenzo Casaburi & Ugo Troiano, 2016. "Ghost-House Busters: The Electoral Response to a Large Anti–Tax Evasion Program," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(1), pages 273-314.
    14. Stéphane Goutte & David Guerreiro & Bilel Sanhaji & Sophie Saglio & Julien Chevallier, 2019. "International Financial Markets," Post-Print halshs-02183053, HAL.
    15. Kaustav Das & Atisha Ghosh & Pushkar Maitra, 2021. "Exogenous Shocks and Electoral Outcomes: Re-examining the Rational Voter Hypothesis," Monash Economics Working Papers 2021-13, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    16. Weijie Wang & Taek Kyu Kim, 2024. "Do government performance signals affect citizen satisfaction?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(3), pages 846-870, June.
    17. Arroyo Abad, Leticia & Maurer, Noel, 2021. "Do Pandemics Shape Elections? Retrospective voting in the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic in the United States," CEPR Discussion Papers 15678, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Julien Labonne, 2012. "The local electoral impacts of conditional cash transfers Evidence from a field experiment," Economics Series Working Papers WPS/2012-09, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    19. Maaser, Nicola & Štrobl, Martin, 2024. "School performance and retrospective voting: Evidence from local elections in Denmark," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    20. Richard Burke, 2024. "Are retrospective evaluations of local governments moderated by perceptions of influence?," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 105(2), pages 226-241, March.

    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:eee:ecoedu:v:72:y:2019:i:c:p:44-54. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/econedurev .

    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.