Yinger paper on the Impact of school district consolidation on housing prices published in NTJ

Nov 30, 2008

The Impact of School District Consolidation on Housing Prices

Yue Hu & John Yinger

National Tax Journal, November 2008

John M. Yinger

Economics Department

Public Administration & International Affairs Department

Center for Policy Research

Education

National Tax Journal

John M. Yinger

This paper estimates the capitalization of school district consolidation into housing prices in New York State between 1990 and 2000. The authors utilize first differencing and 2SLS to account for district heterogeneity and possible endogeneity of the consolidation decision. They find that consolidation boosted house values and rents by about 25 percent in very small school districts and that this effect declines with district enrollment, as expected based on economies of size. Consolidation has no impact on housing prices in districts with more than about 1,700 pupils. The impact of consolidation on housing prices declines with tract house value and rent and is negative in the highest—price tracts.