Data and Code for: Why do households leave school value added on the table? The roles of information and preferences

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Robert Ainsworth, University of Florida; Rajeev Dehejia, New York University; Cristian Pop-Eleches, Columbia University; Miguel Urquiola, Columbia University

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
code			01/27/2023 04:19:PM
data			11/11/2022 12:01:PM
output			11/11/2022 02:06:PM
surveys			11/11/2022 01:51:PM
README.pdf	application/pdf	118.3 KB	01/28/2023 10:50:AM
run.do	text/plain	3.5 KB	01/28/2023 10:13:AM

Project Citation:

Ainsworth, Robert, Dehejia, Rajeev, Pop-Eleches, Cristian, and Urquiola, Miguel. Data and Code for: Why do households leave school value added on the table? The roles of information and preferences. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2023. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2023-03-21. https://doi.org/10.3886/E181263V1

Project Description

Summary: Romanian households could choose schools with 1 s.d. additional value added. Why do households leave value added "on the table"? We study two possibilities: information and preferences for other school traits. In an experiment, we inform randomly selected households about schools' value added. These households choose schools with between 0.05 and 0.2 s.d. of additional value added. We then estimate a discrete choice model and show that households have strong preferences for peer quality and curriculum in addition to value added, implying that even perfect information would eliminate at most a quarter of the value added that households leave unexploited.

These materials provide data and code to estimate the results in the paper.

Funding Sources: Center for Development Economics and Policy, Columbia University; SIPA Faculty Grants Program, Columbia University; New York University; KDI School of Public Policy and Management

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: school choice; value added; information

JEL Classification:
      C54 Quantitative Policy Modeling
      D80 Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty: General
      I20 Education and Research Institutions: General

Geographic Coverage: Romania

Time Period(s): 2004 – 2019

Collection Date(s): 2017 – 2019; 5/1/2019 – 8/1/2019

Universe: The administrative data cover all students admitted to Romanian high schools. The survey data cover students in 194 middle schools in 48 Romanian towns.

Data Type(s): administrative records data; survey data

Methodology

Response Rate: The baseline survey interviewed households of 20% of the students in the 48 survey towns (3,898/19,793). The endline survey interviewed 57% of the baseline respondents who were in experimental middle schools, who intended to apply to tracks in their town, and who were assigned to a track (1,533/2,692).

Sampling: For the baseline survey, towns and middle schools were selected. Towns were chosen as those in which value added was most predictable among towns with between 7 and 28 tracks in 2018. Middle schools were randomly chosen among those that had at least 15 students and in which it was logistically feasible for surveyors to visit schools' high-school information sessions. Surveyors interviewed all parents of 8th graders who attended these sessions, using on-site questionnaires.

The endline survey took place via phone. Surveyors interviewed baseline respondents who were in experimental middle schools, who intended to apply to tracks in their town, and who were assigned to a track. Experimental middle schools are those in which the baseline survey was successfully implemented in all middle schools in a matched pair.

Data Source: The administrative data come from the Romanian Ministry of Education. The survey data were collected jointly with Nest Data Explorer.

Collection Mode(s): on-site questionnaire; telephone interview

Unit(s) of Observation: Students

Geographic Unit: Town

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Published Versions

V1 [2023-03-21]

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