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Unawareness and Selective Disclosure: The Effect of School Quality Information on Property Prices

Author

Listed:
  • John Haisken-DeNew
  • Syed Hasan
  • Nikhil Jha
  • Mathias Sinning

Abstract

The Australian Government launched the My School website in 2010 to provide standardised information about the quality of schools to the Australian public. This paper combines data from this website with home sales data for the state of Victoria to estimate the effect of the publication of school quality information on property prices. We use a difference-in-difference approach to estimate the causal effect of the release of information about high-quality and low-quality schools relative to medium-quality schools in the neighborhood and find that the release of information about high-quality schools increases property prices by 3.6 percent, whereas the release of information about low-quality schools has no significant effect. The findings indicate that many buyers are unaware of the relevance of school quality information and that real estate agents pursue a strategy of disclosing information about high-quality schools to increase the sales price. Results from a survey of Victorian real estate agents provide evidence in favor of this strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • John Haisken-DeNew & Syed Hasan & Nikhil Jha & Mathias Sinning, 2016. "Unawareness and Selective Disclosure: The Effect of School Quality Information on Property Prices," Crawford School Research Papers 1603, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    • Handle: RePEc:een:crwfrp:1603
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    File URL: https://crawford.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/publication/crawford01_cap_anu_edu_au/2016-12/cswp1603.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Melser, Daniel & Moallemi, Morteza & Kim, Jun Sung, 2021. "Preferences for single-sex schools: Evidence from the housing market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 710-726.
    3. Daniel Broxterman & Tingyu Zhou, 2023. "Correction to: Information Frictions in Real Estate Markets: Recent Evidence and Issues," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 66(2), pages 299-299, February.
    4. Michael J. Seiler & Liuming Yang, 2023. "Gun‐ownership disclosure and localized home prices," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 51(6), pages 1399-1436, November.
    5. Zhao, Yang & Ma, Jingchun & Lan, Zhu, 2024. "Balancing education and real estate: The impact of the teacher rotation policy on school district housing prices," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 69(PA).
    6. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Ho, Tiffany & Salamanca, Nicolás, 2021. "Parental Responses to Children's Achievement Test Results," IZA Discussion Papers 14663, IZA Network @ LISER.
    7. Daniel Melser, 2023. "The housing market reaction to the combustible cladding crisis: Safety or financial concerns?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(4), pages 620-637, March.
    8. Yongbin Huang & Hai Hong, 2023. "The heterogeneous impact of house purchase limits policy on housing prices: Comparison between elite and non‐elite school district houses," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 51(5), pages 1055-1078, September.
    9. Rajapaksa, Darshana & Gono, Marcel & Wilson, Clevo & Managi, Shunsuke & Lee, Boon & Hoang, Viet-Ngu, 2020. "The demand for education: The impacts of good schools on property values in Brisbane, Australia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    10. Yue Yin & Sihang Yu & Tao Sun, 2025. "Heterogeneity in Education-Driven Residential Mobility: Evidence from Tianjin Under China’s School District System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-22, September.
    11. Fan, Ying & Fu, Yuqi & Yang, Zan & Chen, Ming, 2024. "Search frictions in rental markets: Evidence from urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    12. Fan, Ying & Fu, Yuqi & Yang, Zan, 2025. "Tour detour: Intermediaries’ search diversion in rental markets," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    13. Gu, Yiquan & Rasch, Alexander & Wenzel, Tobias, 2022. "Consumer salience and quality provision in (un)regulated public service markets," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    14. Kim, Hayoung, 2022. "Heterogeneous effects of information disclosure: Evidence from housing markets," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 359-380.
    15. Doko Tchatoka, Firmin & Varvaris, Vanessa, 2021. "Neighbourhood, school zoning and the housing market: Evidence from New South Wales," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    16. Hörnig, Lukas & Schäfer, Max, 2025. "The value of school choice opportunities," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    17. Yuta Kuroda, 2022. "What does the disclosure of school quality information bring? The effect through the housing market," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 125-149, January.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets

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