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Information, Preferences, and Household Demand for School Value Added

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Ainsworth
  • Rajeev Dehejia
  • Cristian Pop-Eleches
  • Miguel Urquiola

Abstract

This paper examines the roles that information and preferences play in determining whether households choose schools with high value added. We study Romanian school markets using administrative data, a survey, and an experiment. The administrative data show that, on average, households could select schools with 1 s.d. worth of additional value added. This may reflect that households have incorrect beliefs about schools’ value added, or that their preferences lead them to prioritize other school traits. We elicit households’ beliefs and find that they explain less than a fifth of the variation in value added. We then inform randomly selected households about the value added of the schools in their towns. This improves the accuracy of households’ beliefs and leads low-achieving students to attend higher-value added schools. We next estimate households’ preferences and predict their choices under the counterfactual of fully accurate beliefs. We find that beliefs account for 18 (11) percent of the value added that households with low- (high-) achieving children leave unexploited. Interestingly, for households with low-achieving children, the experiment seems to have affected both beliefs and preferences. This generates larger effects on choices than would be predicted via impacts on beliefs alone.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Ainsworth & Rajeev Dehejia & Cristian Pop-Eleches & Miguel Urquiola, 2020. "Information, Preferences, and Household Demand for School Value Added," NBER Working Papers 28267, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28267
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    Cited by:

    1. Musaddiq, Tareena & Stange, Kevin & Bacher-Hicks, Andrew & Goodman, Joshua, 2022. "The Pandemic’s effect on demand for public schools, homeschooling, and private schools," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    2. Elisa Facchetti & Lorenzo Neri & Marco Ovidi, 2021. "Should you Meet The Parents? The impact of information on non-test score attributes on school choice," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def113, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    3. Marian Necula & Maria-Magdalena Roșu & Alexandra-Maria Firescu & Cecilia Basu & Andreea Ardelean & Eduard C. Milea & Mihaela Păun, 2022. "New Methodological Approach to Classify Educational Institutions—A Case Study on Romanian High Schools," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(14), pages 1-19, July.
    4. Felipe Arteaga & Adam J Kapor & Christopher A Neilson & Seth D Zimmerman, 2022. "Smart Matching Platforms and Heterogeneous Beliefs in Centralized School Choice," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 137(3), pages 1791-1848.
    5. Ebrahim Azimi & Jane Friesen & Simon Woodcock, 2023. "Private Schools and Student Achievement," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 18(4), pages 623-653, Fall.
    6. Sarah Cohodes & Sean Corcoran & Jennifer Jennings & Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj, 2022. "When Do Informational Interventions Work? Experimental Evidence from New York City High School Choice," NBER Working Papers 29690, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Christopher Neilson & Felipe Arteaga & Adam Kapor & Seth Zimmerman, 2021. "Smart Matching Platforms and Heterogeneous Beliefs in Centralized School ChoiceSmart Matching Platforms and Heterogeneous Beliefs in Centralized School Choice," Working Papers 650, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    8. Marco Ovidi, 2021. "Parents know better: primary school choice and student achievement in London," Working Papers 919, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General

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