Estimating the Cream Skimming Effect of School Choice
■Author:
Joseph G. Altonji
Ching-I Huang
Christopher R. Taber
|
■Published In:
Journal of Political Economy, 2015, vol. 123, issue 2, pages 266 - 324
|
■Subjects:
Schule, School, Bildungspolitik, Education policy, Wettbewerb, Competition, Schulauswahl, School choice, Privatschule, Private school, Allgemeinbildende
|
本院經濟系黃景沂老師於Journal of Political Economy期刊發表論文
■Abstract:
We develop a framework that may be used to determine the degree to which a school choice program may harm public school stayers by luring the best students to other schools. This framework results in a simple formula showing that the "cream-skimming" effect is increasing in the degree of heterogeneity within schools, the school choice takeup rate of strong students relative to weak students, and the importance of peers. We use the formula to investigate the effects of a voucher program on the high school graduation rate of the students who would remain in public school. We employ NELS:88 data to measure the characteristics of public school students, to estimate a model of the private school entrance decision, and to estimate peer group effects on graduation. We supplement the econometric estimates with a wide range of alternative assumptions about school choice and peer effects. We find that the cream skimming effect is negative but small and that this result is robust across our specifications.
Learning during a crisis: The SARS epidemic in Taiwan
■Author:
Daniel Bennett
Chun-Fang Chiang
Anup Malani
|
■Published In:
Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 1-18.
|
■Subjects:
Infektionskrankheit, Infectious disease, Verhalten. Behaviour, Informationsversorgung, Information provision, Lernen, Learning, Taiwan
|
本院經濟系江淳芳老師於Journal of Development Economics期刊發表論文
■Abstract:
SARS struck Taiwan in 2003, causing a national crisis. Many people feared that SARS would spread through the health care system, and outpatient visits fell by more than 30% in the course of a few weeks. We examine how both public information and the behavior and opinions of peers contributed to this reaction. We identify a peer effect through a difference-in-difference comparison of longtime residents and recent arrivals, who are less socially connected. Although several forms of social interaction may contribute to this pattern, social learning is a plausible explanation for our finding. We find that people respond to both public information and to their peers. In a dynamic simulation based on the regressions, social interactions substantially magnify the response to SARS.
▲TOP
|