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The Three Is of Public Schools: Irrelevant Inputs, Insufficient Resources and Inefficiency

Author

Listed:
  • Henderson, Daniel
  • Simar, Leopold
  • Wang, Le

Abstract

We examine the educational production function and efficiency of public school districts in Illinois. Using nonparametric kernel methods, we find that most traditional schooling inputs are irrelevant in determining test scores (even in a very general setting). Property tax caps are the only relevant factor that is related to districts' financial constraints and have predominantly negative associations with test scores. Therefore, insufficient resources may be partially responsible for the lack of growth in test scores. For most other relevant inputs, we find substantial heterogeneity in the returns, which helps reconcile some of the puzzling results in the literature. We further find that there exist inefficiencies in school districts. Moreover, the level of test scores, commonly used as a measure of school effectiveness, (while related) differs substantially from our efficiency scores, and standard parametric approaches drastically underestimate school efficiency. We discuss the policy implications of our results.
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Suggested Citation

  • Henderson, Daniel & Simar, Leopold & Wang, Le, 2017. "The Three Is of Public Schools: Irrelevant Inputs, Insufficient Resources and Inefficiency," LIDAM Reprints ISBA 2017009, Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA).
    • Handle: RePEc:aiz:louvar:2017009
    Note: In : Applied Economics, vol. 49, no. 12, p. 1164-1184 (2017)
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    Cited by:

    1. Sam Jones, 2020. "Testing the Technology of Human Capital Production: A General‐to‐Restricted Framework," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 82(6), pages 1429-1455, December.
    2. Lori Taylor & Shawna Grosskopf & Kathy Hayes & Laura Razzolini, 2023. "The role of poverty measurements in achieving educational equity through school finance reform," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 109-127, October.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
    • C44 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Operations Research; Statistical Decision Theory
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education

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