IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp6106.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effect of School Construction on Test Scores, School Enrollment, and Home Prices

Author

Listed:
  • Neilson, Christopher

    () (Yale University)

  • Zimmerman, Seth D.

    () (Princeton University)

Abstract

This paper provides new evidence on the effect of school construction projects on home prices, academic achievement, and public school enrollment. Taking advantage of the staggered implementation of a comprehensive school construction project in a poor urban district, we find that, by six years after building occupancy, $10,000 of per-student investment in school construction raised reading scores for elementary and middle school students by 0.027 standard deviations. For a student receiving the average treatment intensity this corresponds to a 0.21 standard deviation increase. School construction also raised home prices and public school enrollment in zoned neighborhoods.

Suggested Citation

  • Neilson, Christopher & Zimmerman, Seth D., 2011. "The Effect of School Construction on Test Scores, School Enrollment, and Home Prices," IZA Discussion Papers 6106, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6106
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp6106.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jesse Rothstein, 2010. "Teacher Quality in Educational Production: Tracking, Decay, and Student Achievement," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 125(1), pages 175-214.
    2. Sandra E. Black, 1999. "Do Better Schools Matter? Parental Valuation of Elementary Education," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 114(2), pages 577-599.
    3. Esther Duflo, 2001. "Schooling and Labor Market Consequences of School Construction in Indonesia: Evidence from an Unusual Policy Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 795-813, September.
    4. Patrick Bayer & Fernando Ferreira & Robert McMillan, 2007. "A Unified Framework for Measuring Preferences for Schools and Neighborhoods," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(4), pages 588-638, August.
    5. Petra E. Todd & Kenneth I. Wolpin, 2007. "The Production of Cognitive Achievement in Children: Home, School, and Racial Test Score Gaps," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 91-136.
    6. Stephanie Riegg Cellini & Fernando Ferreira & Jesse Rothstein, 2010. "The Value of School Facility Investments: Evidence from a Dynamic Regression Discontinuity Design," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 125(1), pages 215-261.
    7. Joshua D. Angrist & Susan M. Dynarski & Thomas J. Kane & Parag A. Pathak & Christopher R. Walters, 2012. "Who Benefits from KIPP?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 837-860, September.
    8. James J. Heckman & Jora Stixrud & Sergio Urzua, 2006. "The Effects of Cognitive and Noncognitive Abilities on Labor Market Outcomes and Social Behavior," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 411-482, July.
    9. Justine S. Hastings & Christopher A. Neilson & Seth D. Zimmerman, 2012. "The Effect of School Choice on Intrinsic Motivation and Academic Outcomes," NBER Working Papers 18324, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Will Dobbie & Roland G. Fryer, 2011. "Are High-Quality Schools Enough to Increase Achievement among the Poor? Evidence from the Harlem Children's Zone," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 158-187, July.
    11. Joseph G. Altonji & Ching-I Huang & Christopher R. Taber, 2015. "Estimating the Cream Skimming Effect of School Choice," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 123(2), pages 266-324.
    12. Atila Abdulkadiroğlu & Joshua D. Angrist & Susan M. Dynarski & Thomas J. Kane & Parag A. Pathak, 2011. "Accountability and Flexibility in Public Schools: Evidence from Boston's Charters And Pilots," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 126(2), pages 699-748.
    13. Joshua D. Angrist & Susan M. Dynarski & Thomas J. Kane & Parag A. Pathak & Christopher R. Walters, 2010. "Inputs and Impacts in Charter Schools: KIPP Lynn," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 239-243, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Conlin, Michael & Thompson, Paul N., 2017. "Impacts of new school facility construction: An analysis of a state-financed capital subsidy program in Ohio," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 13-28.
    2. Brasington, David M., 2018. "Passing school building tax levies may increase teacher salary," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 87-89.
    3. Martorell, Paco & Stange, Kevin & McFarlin, Isaac, 2016. "Investing in schools: capital spending, facility conditions, and student achievement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 13-29.
    4. Joshua S. Goodman & Michael Hurwitz & Jisung Park & Jonathan Smith, 2018. "Heat and Learning," CESifo Working Paper Series 7291, CESifo Group Munich.
    5. Mikal Davis & Nick Ingwersen & Harounan Kazianga & Leigh Linden & Arif Mamun & Ali Protik & Matt Sloan, "undated". "Ten-Year Impacts of Burkina Faso's BRIGHT Program," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 2ecdd42bb503422b802ce20da, Mathematica Policy Research.
    6. Lars-Erik Borge & Arnt O. Hopland, 2017. "Schools and public buildings in decay: the role of political fragmentation," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 85-105, February.
    7. Hong, Kai & Zimmer, Ron, 2016. "Does Investing in School Capital Infrastructure Improve Student Achievement?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 143-158.
    8. Jeffrey Zabel, 2014. "Unintended Consequences: The Impact of Proposition 2½ Overrides on School Segregation in Massachusetts," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 9(4), pages 481-514, October.
    9. Goodman, Joshua & Hurwitz, Michael & Park, Jisung & Smith, Jonathan, 2018. "Heat and Learning," Working Paper Series rwp18-014, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    10. Joseph Marchand & Jeremy G. Weber, 2020. "How Local Economic Conditions Affect School Finances, Teacher Quality, and Student Achievement: Evidence from the Texas Shale Boom," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(1), pages 36-63, January.
    11. C. Kirabo Jackson, 2018. "Does School Spending Matter? The New Literature on an Old Question," NBER Working Papers 25368, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Alessandro Belmonte & Vincenzo Bove & Giovanna D’Inverno & Marco Modica, 2017. "School Infrastructure Spending and Educational Outcomes in Northern Italy," SPRU Working Paper Series 2017-20, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    13. Lawani, Abdelaziz & Reed, Michael R. & Mark, Tyler & Zheng, Yuqing, 2019. "Reviews and price on online platforms: Evidence from sentiment analysis of Airbnb reviews in Boston," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 22-34.
    14. Paco Martorel & Kevin Stange & Isaac McFarlin Jr., 2016. "Investing in Schools: Capital Spending, Facility Conditions, and Student Achievement (Revised and Edited)," Upjohn Working Papers and Journal Articles 16-256, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    15. Hashim, Ayesha K. & Strunk, Katharine O. & Marsh, Julie A., 2018. "The new school advantage? Examining the effects of strategic new school openings on student achievement," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 254-266.
    16. Dave Thomson, 2016. "The Short Run Impact of the Building Schools for the Future Programme on Attainment at Key Stage 4," DoQSS Working Papers 16-07, Department of Quantitative Social Science - UCL Institute of Education, University College London.
    17. Ava Gail Cas, 2016. "Typhoon Aid and Development: The Effects of Typhoon-Resistant Schools and Instructional Resources on Educational Attainment in the Philippines," Asian Development Review, MIT Press, vol. 33(1), pages 183-201, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    test scores; school construction; home prices;

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • R30 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - General

    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:iza:izadps:dp6106. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Holger Hinte). General contact details of provider: http://www.iza.org .

    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 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.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.