Estimating the cream skimming effect of school choice

We derive a formula to determine the degree to which a school choice program may harm public school stayers by luring the best students to other schools. The “cream skimming” effect is increasing in the degree of heterogeneity within schools, the school choice take-up rate of strong students relativ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of political economy Vol. 123; no. 2; pp. 266 - 324
Main Authors Altonji, Joseph G, Huang, Ching-I, Taber, Christopher
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Chicago University of Chicago Press 01.04.2015
University of Chicago, acting through its Press
Subjects
Allgemein bildende Schule
Bildungsertrag
Bildungspolitik
Charter schools
Confidence interval
Cream
Dependency theory
Economic models
Economic theory
Educational vouchers
Graduates
High school graduates
High school students
High schools
Outcomes of education
Political economy
Private schools
Privatschule
Public schools
School choice
Schools
Schule
Schulwahl
Social policy
Students
Studies
USA
Vouchers
Wettbewerb
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Summary:We derive a formula to determine the degree to which a school choice program may harm public school stayers by luring the best students to other schools. The “cream skimming” effect is increasing in the degree of heterogeneity within schools, the school choice take-up rate of strong students relative to weak students, and the dependence of school outcomes on student body quality. We use the formula to investigate the cream skimming effect of hypothetical voucher programs on the high school graduation rate and other outcomes of the students who would remain in public school. We find small effects across a wide variety of model specifications and types of modest voucher programs.
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ISSN:0047-2697
1537-534X
0022-3808
1537-534X
DOI:10.1086/679497