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The effect of school finance reform on population heterogeneity

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  • Daniel Aaronson

Abstract

This paper tests whether state school finance reform alters neighborhood income homogeneity. One implication of the Tiebout model is that within-community homogeneity declines as a result of an exogenous decrease in the ability of jurisdictions to set local tax and expenditure levels. The property tax revolt and the school finance equalization reform of the 1970s and 1980s offer a test of the role of state fiscal reform on aggregate population sorting behavior. The results show that school finance has a significant effect on school district income sorting, especially among low income communities.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Aaronson, 1998. "The effect of school finance reform on population heterogeneity," Working Paper Series WP-98-11, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-98-11
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    Cited by:

    1. Katherine Baicker & Nora Gordon, 2004. "The Effect of Mandated State Education Spending on Total Local Resources," NBER Working Papers 10701, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Barbara Biasi, 2019. "School Finance Equalization Increases Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence from a Simulated-Instruments Approach," NBER Working Papers 25600, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Katherine Baicker & Nora Gordon, 2004. "The Effect of Mandated State Education Spending on Total Local Resources (new title: The effect of state education finance reform on total local resources)," CESifo Working Paper Series 1275, CESifo.
    4. Epple, Dennis & Ferreyra, Maria Marta, 2008. "School finance reform: Assessing general equilibrium effects," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(5-6), pages 1326-1351, June.
    5. Chakrabarti, Rajashri & Roy, Joydeep, 2015. "Housing markets and residential segregation: Impacts of the Michigan school finance reform on inter- and intra-district sorting," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 110-132.
    6. Farnham, Martin & Sevak, Purvi, 2006. "State fiscal institutions and empty-nest migration: Are Tiebout voters hobbled?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 407-427, February.
    7. Gordon, Nora, 2004. "The Effect of Mandated State Education Spending in Total Local Resources," Santa Cruz Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt2jg817p3, Department of Economics, UC Santa Cruz.
    8. Il Hwan Chung & William Duncombe & John Yinger, 2018. "The Impact of State Aid Reform on Property Values: A Case Study of Maryland's Bridge to Excellence in Public Schools Act," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 13(3), pages 369-394, Summer.
    9. Downes, Thomas A. & Figlio, David N., 1999. "Do Tax and Expenditure Limits Provide a Free Lunch? Evidence on the Link Between Limits and Public Sector Service Quality," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 52(n. 1), pages 113-28, March.
    10. Thomas A. Husted & Lawrence W. Kenny, 2002. "The Legacy of Serrano: The Impact of Mandated Equal Spending on Private School Enrollment," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 68(3), pages 566-583, January.
    11. Thomas S. Dee, 2004. "Lotteries, Litigation, and Education Finance," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 70(3), pages 584-599, January.
    12. Thomas A. Downes & David N. Figlio, 1999. "Economic inequality and the provision of schooling," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 5(Sep), pages 99-110.
    13. Dee, Thomas S, 2000. "The Capitalization of Education Finance Reforms," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 43(1), pages 185-214, April.
    14. Thomas A. Downes, 2002. "Do state governments matter?: a review of the evidence on the impact on educational outcomes of the changing role of the states in the financing of public education," Conference Series ; [Proceedings], Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, vol. 47(Jun), pages 143-180.
    15. Baicker, Katherine & Gordon, Nora, 2006. "The effect of state education finance reform on total local resources," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(8-9), pages 1519-1535, September.
    16. Aaronson, Daniel, 2001. "Neighborhood Dynamics," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 1-31, January.
    17. Joydeep Roy, 2004. "Effect of a School Finance Reform on Housing Stock and Residential Segregation: Evidence from Proposal A in Michigan," Public Economics 0412004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Maria Marta Ferreyra, 2008. "An Empirical Framework for Large-Scale Policy Analysis, with an Application to School Finance Reform in Michigan," 2008 Meeting Papers 609, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    19. Sean Corcoran & William N. Evans, 2010. "Income Inequality, the Median Voter, and the Support for Public Education," NBER Working Papers 16097, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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