Private Schools and the Willingness to Pay for Public Schooling

Households pay a premium to live in houses assigned to high quality public schools, and the housing market yields information about the demand for public school quality. The current study estimates a two-stage house price hedonic emphasizing the role that private schools play in the willingness to pay for public school quality. The elasticity of house prices with respect to public school quality is 0.15, and 0.04 with respect to private school quality. The price elasticity of demand for public schooling is -1.72, with an income elasticity of 0.31. Public and private schools are substitutes, with a cross-price elasticity of 0.32. A school choice program that reduced private school tuition by 10 percent would reduce the willingness to pay for public school performance by 1.9 percent. The magnitude of the results generally varies markedly between large and small houses, with large houses more responsive to public and private schooling variables. © 2007 American Education Finance Association