Valuing English primary schools

This paper provides the first empirical evidence for the UK on the effect of primary school performance on property prices. We find that, on average, a one percentage point increase in the neighbourhood proportion of children reaching the government-specified target grade pushes up neighbourhood property prices by 0.67%. At 2000 property prices, we calculate the social valuation of a sustained 1% improvement in primary school performance to be up to $90 per child per year. Our instrumental variable and semi-parametric approach avoids the problems of school quality endogeneity and omitted neighbourhood variables that occur in typical property value models. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.