Does the United States spend enough on public schools? Evidence from a market-based efficiency test
Journal of Public Economics · 2026 · Patrick J. Bayer、Peter Sinclair Blair、Kenneth A. Whaley
中文摘要
尽管现有证据表明增加学校支出能改善学生层面的相关结果,但目前支出水平是否有效率仍不清楚。基于财政学的经典洞见——当由税收融资的边际支出增加不改变本地房价时,本地公共品供给是有效率的——我们检验学校支出是否满足这一基准。为实施该检验,我们构建了一个连接房价、公立学校经常性支出与财产税的 26 年全国面板数据,并利用法院强制实施的学校财政改革构建地方税收的新工具变量。将这些工具变量与已有的经常性支出工具变量相结合,我们估计了由税收融资的支出增加对房价的因果效应。由税收融资的经常性支出增加会提高房价,这表明家庭对额外学校支出的估值高于其成本。这些发现表明,美国当前的公立学校支出低于有效基准。
Abstract
While existing evidence shows that increased school spending improves student outcomes, it remains unclear whether current spending levels are efficient. Building on the classic public finance insight that local public-goods provision is efficient when a marginal, tax-financed increase leaves local house prices unchanged, we test whether school spending meets this benchmark. To implement this test, we assemble a 26-year national panel linking house prices, current public school expenditures, and property taxes, and exploit court-mandated school finance reforms to develop new instruments for local taxation. Combining these instruments with established instruments for current expenditures, we estimate the causal effect of tax-financed spending increases on house prices. Tax-financed increases in current expenditures raise house prices, implying that households value additional school spending more than it costs. These findings indicate that current U.S. public school spending falls below the efficient benchmark.