What Impacts Can We Expect from School Spending Policy? Evidence from Evaluations in the United States
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 16,
no. 1, January 2024
(pp. 412-46)
Abstract
We conduct meta-analysis on a comprehensive set of studies of the impacts of US K-12 public school spending on student outcomes—estimating average marginal impacts and heterogeneity across contexts. On average, a policy increasing spending by $1,000 per pupil for four years improves test scores by 0.0316σ and college-going by 2.8 pp. Moving beyond averages, we use estimates of heterogeneity and observable policy differences to produce informative probability distributions of policy effects. Effects are smaller for economically advantaged populations, marginal effects of capital spending are similar to noncapital, and effects are similar across baseline spending levels and geography. Confounding and publication biases are minimal.Citation
Jackson, C. Kirabo, and Claire L. Mackevicius. 2024. "What Impacts Can We Expect from School Spending Policy? Evidence from Evaluations in the United States." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 16 (1): 412-46. DOI: 10.1257/app.20220279Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- H75 State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions
- I21 Analysis of Education
- I22 Educational Finance; Financial Aid
- I26 Returns to Education
- I28 Education: Government Policy
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