The willingness to pay for school quality

Last registered on December 02, 2024
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The willingness to pay for school quality
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014672
Initial registration date
November 20, 2024

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
December 02, 2024, 11:06 AM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Primary Investigator

Name
Thea Zöllner
Affiliation
University of Bern
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Stefan C. Wolter
PI Affiliation
University of Bern
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Maria Cattaneo
PI Affiliation
Swiss Coordination Centre for Research in Education
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-11-21
End date
2025-01-31
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
preferences, parents, children, survey, school quality
JEL code(s)
I2 J1 J18 J24
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Parents commonly seek the best possible school for their children. In countries where students are assigned schools based on their place of residence, economic literature shows that the presence of better schools in a district is reflected in increased property prices and higher prices for renting appartements. Most economic studies focus on school performance as the primary measure of quality driving these premiums. While an emerging literature looks at additional school attributes, such as the share of students eligible for free school meals, little is known about preferences for student composition. We contribute to this literature by investigating parents' willingness to pay for a certain pupil composition in addition to school performance. Specifically, we assess parental preferences for the share of foreign students, the share of students with special needs, and school performance. Using a discrete choice experiment with 2,000 Swiss parents of school-age children, we assess their preferences by having them choose between various school options.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Cattaneo, Maria, Stefan C. Wolter and Thea Zöllner. 2024. "The willingness to pay for school quality ." AEA RCT Registry. December 02. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14672-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2024-11-21
Intervention End Date
2025-01-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The primary dependent variable measures which of two alternatives (appartements) a participant chooses. The alternatives vary in four attributes. These are the rental cost of nearby appartements, the rank of the school in student assessments, the share of students not speaking the school language and finally the share of students with special. These attributes will allow us to measure the willingness to pay for an appartement that grants access to a school with specific characteristics.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
We will estimate heterogeneous preferences among respondents. Preference heterogeneity will be investigated for respondent characteristics, as well as regional characteristics and educational levels. Next to looking at the coefficients corresponding to the four attributes, we are interested in the two-way interactions, such as the two-way interaction between the ranking of the school with the share of foreign students and the share of students with special needs.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We examine a discrete choice experiment that is embedded into an online survey of around 2000 Swiss parents of school-age children. The respondents are asked about their preferences for four attributes (rental cost of properties near the school, school rank in student assessments, share of students not speaking the school language, share students with special needs) for their child's school.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
By computer
Randomization Unit
Individual level
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
2000 parents of school-age children
Sample size: planned number of observations
2000 parents of school-age children
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
2000 parents of school-age children
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethikkommission, Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät
IRB Approval Date
2024-10-17
IRB Approval Number
332024
Analysis Plan