Free to Choose: Can School Choice Reduce Student Achievement?
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app.20160634.pdf
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1.06 MB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Abdulkadiroğlu, Atila
Walters, Christopher R.
Pathak, Parag
Date Issued
January 2018
Journal
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
Publisher
American Economic Association
Citation
Abdulkadiroğlu, Atila, Parag A. Pathak, and Christopher R. Walters. “Free to Choose: Can School Choice Reduce Student Achievement?” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 10, no. 1 (January 2018): 175–206. © 2018 American Economic Association
Version
Final published version
Abstract
A central argument for school choice is that parents can choose schools wisely. This principle may underlie why lottery-based school evaluations have almost always reported positive or zero achievement effects. This paper reports on a striking counterexample to these results. We use randomized lotteries to evaluate the Louisiana Scholarship Program, a voucher plan that provides public funds for disadvantaged students to attend private schools. LSP participation lowers math scores by 0.4 standard deviations and also reduces achievement in reading, science, and social studies. These effects may be due in part to selection of low-quality private schools into the program. (JEL H75, I21, I22, I28)
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20160634
