| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 980580 | Regional Science and Urban Economics | 2016 | 18 Pages |
•We study the voluntary open enrollment form of school choice.•We employ a spatial autoregressive lag multinomial logit model to study it.•We find a 0.4 spatial correlation in school districts' choice of open enrollment.•Competition from public and private schools also influences a district's choice.•Spatial dependence makes a big difference in size and significance of many variables.
We provide an analysis of the determinants of adoption of inter-district open enrollment policies by school districts in Ohio. Legislation passed in 1997 allows Ohio's school districts to adopt one of the following open enrollment options: 1) prohibit enrollment of students from any other school district in the state (no open enrollment), 2) permit enrollment of students from adjacent school districts, or 3) permit enrollment of students from any school district in the state. We employ a recently developed spatial autoregressive lag multinomial logit model to examine the determinants of adoption of each open enrollment alternative. Among the most influential factors are school districts' demographic characteristics, financial factors, and competitive environment. More importantly, the results show evidence of strategic interaction, with a positive correlation in policy choice between neighboring school districts of about 0.4.
