Grosskopf, S., Hayes, K., Taylor, L. & Weber, W., (2001)
‘On the determinants of school district efficiency: competition and monitoring’
Journal of Urban Economics 49, pp. 453-478
Uses cross-section data from Texas to examine the effects of monitoring and competition on the technical and allocative efficiency of school districts.
Key results:
Technical inefficiency in schools is found to be lower in school districts with higher proportions of homeowners, highly educated individuals, and households with school age children.
Some evidence is also found that competition influences allocative efficiency.
However the authors do not fully describe the Texas school system, nor the incentives it is likely to create.
Their measures of competition (a concentration ratio and a Herfindahl index) take no account of district policies on transfers between schools, which some districts allow and others do not.
