Grosskopf, S., Hayes, K., Taylor, L. & Weber, W., (2001)

‘On the determinants of school district efficiency:
competition and monitoring’

Journal of Urban Economics 49, pp. 453-478

• Uses cross-section data from Texas to examine the effects of monitoring and competition on the technical and allocative efficiency of school districts.

Key results:

• Technical inefficiency in schools is found to be lower in school districts with higher proportions of homeowners, highly educated individuals, and households with school age children.
• Some evidence is also found that competition influences allocative efficiency.
• However the authors do not fully describe the Texas school system, nor the incentives it is likely to create.
• Their measures of competition (a concentration ratio and a Herfindahl index) take no account of district policies on transfers between schools, which some districts allow and others do not.