The Demand for Educational Quality: Comparing Estimates from a Median Voter Model with Those from an Almost Ideal Demand System

Abstract

Communities differ in both the bundle of amenities offered to residents and the implicit price of these amenities. Thus, households are faced with a choice of which bundle to select when they select their residence. This choice implies households make tradeoffs among the amenities; that is, the amenities are substitutes or complements. We focus on estimating the demand for public school quality. After generating the implicit prices of community amenities from a hedonic house price equation, we use the median voter model and the AIDS model framework for estimating price and income elasticities of demand. The two models yield very similar estimates. The own price elasticity of demand for schooling is about -0.6 with an income elasticity of demand of 0.5. Public safety and school quality are substitutes as are the community's income level and school quality.

Keywords: local public goods, almost ideal demand system, school quality, median voter

JEL Classification: C31,H40,R22