Does school choice program affect local housing prices?: Inter- vs. intra-district choice program

Abstract

We examine the effect of inter-district and intra-district high school programs on the residential real estate market in Seoul, South Korea, focusing on the switching effect from intra-district zoning to inter-district school choice. Data consist of 85,744 transaction-based housing observations corresponding to the 2008–2012 period surrounding South Korea's education policy change that directly affects 24 high schools. We employ a difference-in-differences (DID) methodology overcoming potential mis-specification bias while controlling for school, locational, and housing characteristics; and, find that switching from intra-district to an inter-district high school choice program decreases housing prices by an average of 4.7% within 0.5 km after the policy change was announced and another 5.3% after school admission. The observed price discount is ameliorated as the location boundary surrounding the affected schools is extended. This result suggests that the policy change reduced the economic barrier of higher housing prices near top performing schools and increased socio-economic diversity and geographic educational parity across the socio-economic spectrum. However, the creation of two different school systems can favor inter- over intra-district schools over time so care must be taken to avoid inequality between the two systems.