CARES Classroom Observation Tool
Category: Teacher and Leader Development
In this paper, I investigate how publicizing school social climate information is capitalized into the housing market and how it affects the sorting of homebuyers from different economic backgrounds. I first provide descriptive evidence on the novelty of school climate relative to other school characteristics. Next, using a plausibly exogenous shock of school climate information in Chicago, I employ a border discontinuity design with event studies and a difference-in-differences framework. I find that providing this information publicly leads to price increases for homes assigned to better climate ratings, and find suggestive evidence that more advantaged families sort into these homes. The initial impacts dissipate within a year as the information becomes less salient and the search costs increase. The second round of school climate ratings received much less news coverage, leading to muted capitalization. However, higher income families had a significant reaction to the updated ratings, suggesting differences in access to information. My work provides revealed preference evidence that households value school climate quality.
Keywords
school climate, school choice, revealed preferences, school quality information
Education level
Topics
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/yh8n-mp60
